Turkey’s Erdoğan speaks with Saudi crown prince: report

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Wednesday by phone amid the investigation into the death of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who died inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

The Lebanon Daily Star and The Associated Press report that Erdoğan and Crown Prince Mohammed spoke about the two countries’ joint investigation into Khashoggi’s death, which Saudi Arabia admitted last week occurred in the consulate after weeks of denying knowledge of Khashoggi’s whereabouts.

{mosads}A source told the Daily Star that the two spoke about “the issue of joint efforts and the steps that need to be taken in order to shed light on the Jamal Khashoggi murder in all its aspects.”

The conversation was reported minutes before Crown Prince Mohammed issued his first public remarks on the scandal since it began weeks ago, in which he called Khashoggi’s killing “a heinous crime that cannot be justified.”

News reports have linked the crown prince to several suspects in Khashoggi’s death, which the Saudi government has blamed publicly on an alleged fight that broke out in the consulate while the U.S.-based journalist was obtaining a document for his planned marriage.

“The crime was really painful to all Saudis, and I believe it is painful to every human in the world,” the crown prince said Wednesday.

“It is a heinous crime that cannot be justified. Today Saudi Arabia is carrying out all legal things to finalize the investigation to work with the, cooperate with the Turkish government and to present the perpetrators to the court and take their judgement,” he added.

President Trump issued his strongest remarks yet concerning the investigation on Tuesday, blasting the Saudis’ actions as part of a “cover-up.”

“They had a very bad original concept, it was carried out poorly and the cover-up was the worst in the history of cover-ups,” Trump said at the White House. “They had the worst cover-up ever.”

“Whoever thought of that idea I think is in big trouble, and they should be in big trouble,” he added.