By Ben Kerrigan-
Jeremy Hunt will meet both King Salman and Prince Mohammed, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, widely suspected of ordering Khashoggi’s murder. No concrete proof exists of his direct involvement, except the natural deduction that the murder was ordered at the highest level of the Saudi government. King Salmon has been officially excluded from suspicion, and the Saudi prince has also denied any involvement. However, with the Turkey has asserted that the murder was ordered at the highest level of the Saudi government, leaving the Saudi Prince standing out in suspicion.
It remains possible in theory that the murder was a botched job, but the tapes aid to have been passed to international governments including the U.K and the U.S, supposedly has conclusive proof of the perpetrators. Without public access to the contents of the tape, all is speculative. The general consensus remains that the murder was ordered by the government.
Speaking before a diplomatically fraught trip that includes a visit to the United Arab Emirates to try to broker a ceasefire in Yemen, Hunt said: “It is clearly unacceptable that the full circumstances behind his murder still remain unclear. We encourage the Saudi authorities to cooperate fully with the Turkish investigation into his death, so that we deliver justice for his family and the watching world.”
He added: “The international community remain united in horror and outrage at the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi one month ago.”
Hunt’s trip was preceded by talks in Riyadh on Sunday between Sir Simon McDonald, the foreign office permanent secretary, and Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister.
But Hunt’s arrival will be the first meeting between a senior western minister and the Saudi royal family since the full circumstances of Khashoggi’s killing became clear, including the enforced Saudi admission that its intelligence agents killed Khashoggi in a premeditated murder.
Saudi Arabia insists Prince Mohammed had no knowledge of the plot to kill Khashoggi, and has arrested 18 people involved in the operation, including two of the prince’s closest aides.
Yet the opposite has happened, with Saudi Arabia stepping up efforts to seize the strategic port of Hodeidah, making it more difficult for Martin Griffiths, the UN special envoy, to start peace talks.
Nevertheless, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been piling pressure on Prince Mohammed by confirming for the first time in public that an audio recording of Khashoggi’s killing exists. The Turkish president said: “We gave the tapes. We gave them to Saudi Arabia, to the United States, Germans, French and British, all of them. They have listened to all the conversations in them. They know.”
Turkish journalists, normally well briefed, said Khashoggi’s last words on the recording were: “I’m suffocating … Take this bag off my head, I’m claustrophobic.”
Saudi officials said initially that Khashoggi had left the consulate, later saying he died in an unplanned “rogue operation”. The kingdom’s public prosecutor, Saud al-Mojeb, has since admitted the journalist was killed in a premeditated attack.
The UK was fully informed of the content of the recording by the Turkish foreign minister at a meeting in London three weeks ago.
Turkey has not revealed whether the tape implicates Prince Mohammed directly in the killing. His chief domestic aide, Saad al-Qahtani, was sacked two weeks after the assassination, as was a deputy intelligence chief. The prince insists he played no role and his defenders have insisted the hitmen over-reached in a bid to please their masters.
Hunt has said the UK response to the murder will in part be determined by the level of Saudi cooperation with the inquiry, and the credibility of assurances that such a killing will never be repeated.
Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, said: “It will be deeply concerning if Jeremy Hunt’s visit represents yet more empty talk, when what we urgently need is concrete action to hold Saudi Arabia to account for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, and bring an immediate end to their assault on the port of Hodeidah, which is threatening the lives of millions of Yemeni civilians.”
In an article in the Washington Post, Erdoğan effectively accused Prince Mohammed of ordering Khashoggi’s killing, by exonerating King Salman of any responsibility and yet saying it had been ordered at the highest level of Saudi society. Turkish media has also reported a second group of Saudi agents came to Istanbul to cover up any signs of the murder including using acid to dissolve the journalist’s dismembered body.
Irfan Fidan, Turkey’s chief prosecutor, said last week that Khashoggi had been strangled to death shortly after entering the consulate as part of a pre-conceived plot. The body was then dismembered and destroyed, he said.
Erdoğan has repeatedly accused the Saudis of failing to co-operate fully with the investigation .The Turkish leader says the Saudi government has declined to identify a purported local cooperator who allegedly buried the body and by denying Turkish investigators full access to the Saudi consul general house and garden.
In Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Hunt will raise the need to agree the terms of a UN resolution binding all sides in the four-year Yemen civil war and focusing on a ceasefire and a political settlement to end the war. The UK is hoping to table a resolution as early as Friday but needs Saudi agreement.
The U.S last week called for a ceasefire within 30 days, but this has failed to yield any observable results. In a symbolic move the US said it would stop providing refueling facilities for Saudi jets operating in Yemen.
Hunt said : “The only solution is now a political decision to set aside arms and pursue peace. Britain has a unique position, both as pen-holder [lead state for drafting decisions] at the UN security council and as a key influencer in the region, so today I am travelling to the Gulf to demand that all sides commit to this process.
“We are witnessing a man made humanitarian catastrophe on our watch: now is the window to make a difference, and to get behind both the UN peace process and current UK efforts in the security council.”
In the UAE, Hunt will meet Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi. He plans to raise the case of British academic Matthew Hedges arrested earlier this year on spying charges.