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A prominent Saudi king said on Saturday that whether or not heads of state met in Argentina next week at the Group of 20 summit will be in close contact with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. a person "with whom they must compose".
Prince Turki al-Faisal told the Associated Press that the killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul last month is "an unacceptable incident that tarnishes and ruins the long record of Saudi Arabia's position in the world ".
"We will have to bear that, it is not something that should not be confronted, and we really are," he said.
According to intelligence officials and analysts, the operation to kill Khashoggi, who wrote critically about the crown prince of the Washington Post, could not have happened without the knowledge of Prince Mohammed. The kingdom, which has presented several contradictory accounts of the murder, denies any involvement of the Crown Prince.
The crown prince began last Thursday his first tour abroad since the murder of October 2, during a visit to the UAE. He is expected to visit other countries in the Middle East before traveling to Buenos Aires on November 30 for the start of the two-day G20 summit, where he will meet world leaders.
President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has maintained international pressure on the kingdom, are among those expected.
"Whether the leaders of this summit engage warmly with the Crown Prince or not, I think that they all recognize that the kingdom as a country, King Salman and the Crown Prince are people with whom they must deal, "said the prince.
He said that Saudi Arabia would continue to play a role on the world stage and that Trump's statement of support to Saudi Arabia recognized the importance of the kingdom.
Trump insists that there is not enough evidence to accuse the crown prince of Khashoggi's murder, despite information to the contrary from the US intelligence report. Trump says the kingdom is an important ally that has helped drive down oil prices.
"I thought that President Trump was expressing what he thought was in the US interest.He emphasized the strategic relationship between the two countries in the same statement and explained how the US Saudi Arabia has been helpful in many cases – not just oil, "said Prince Turki.
The prince also firmly rejected US intelligence reports that the crown prince had ordered the assassination of Khashoggi, claiming that the same intelligence services had been the subject of a "remarkably erroneous assessment". in 2003 in the perspective of the invasion of Iraq by the United States.
"So, we do not take this as a divine revelation, as I have said," he said about reports of American intelligence.
Prince Turki, who led Saudi intelligence for more than two decades and was an ambassador to the United States and Britain, had links with Khashoggi before the writer became a virulent critic of the government . Khashoggi allegedly served as Prince Turki's adviser at one point and was supported by the king during his brief stint as editor of the Saudi newspaper al-Watan. The prince's father is the late King Faisal and his brother is Prince Khalid al-Faisal, governor of Mecca.
Prince Turki said rumors of discontent within the ruling Al Saud family following the Prince's rapid rise to power do not reflect the "extraordinary support" enjoyed by King Salman and his son.
