Turkey\u2019s top diplomat urged US President not to \u2018distance himself from human values\u2019
\nNEWS DESK
\nWASHINGTON
\nTurkey\u2019s foreign minister has accused President Donald Trump of turning a blind eye in the high-profile murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a day after the US leader doubled down in his defense of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
\nDuring a Thanksgiving call with US troops on Thursday, Trump again undermined the CIA\u2019s assessment that bin Salman had personally ordered Khashoggi\u2019s killing. Saudi officials admit that the Washington Post columnist was killed at their consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, last month but have vehemently denied that bin Salman was involved.
\n\u201cIn a way, Mr. Trump\u2019s statement means \u2018Come what may, I will turn a blind eye on this.\u2019 This approach is wrong. Money is not everything. We should not distance ourselves from human values,\u201d Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told CNN Turk, a CNN affiliate.
\n\u201cWe found the US President\u2019s statement about MBS\u2019s involvement where he said \u2018Maybe he did, maybe he didn\u2019t,\u2019 interesting. What he based this on, we don\u2019t know,\u201d he said, referring to the Crown Prince by his initials.
\nTrump has been the Crown Prince\u2019s most powerful international ally during the fallout of Khashoggi\u2019s death, standing by the 33-year-old heir to the Saudi throne and prioritizing the US\u2019 relationship with the kingdom.
\nOn Thursday he said that the CIA\u2019s assessment was merely based on \u201cfeelings\u201d and was not conclusive.
\n\u201cThey have not concluded. Nobody\u2019s concluded. I don\u2019t know if anybody\u2019s going to be able to conclude that the Crown Prince did it,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThey said he might have done it. That\u2019s a big difference.\u201d
\nTrump continued to defend his decision not to blame the Crown Prince or issue more severe punishments, suggesting diminished relations with Saudi Arabia would cause \u201ca global depression,\u201d result in the loss of \u201chundreds of thousands of jobs\u201d and leave Israel defenseless.
\nTrump has repeatedly pointed to the US\u2019 lucrative arms deals with Saudi Arabia, and the kingdom\u2019s power to temper oil prices and contain Iranian aggression in the region, as reasons to keep a response to Khashoggi\u2019s death to a minimum.
\nThe US has sanctioned 17 Saudi individuals after the journalist\u2019s killing. A bipartisan group of senators has also introduced draft legislation to impose tougher sanctions that target arms sales.
\nTurkey has been the most vocal international critic of Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi\u2019s murder, leaking evidence of what happened at the Saudi consulate piece by piece to keep the world\u2019s attention on the kingdom, a longtime rival in the region.
\nBut Turkey itself has a dismal record on protecting the media. The organization Reporters Without Borders calls Turkey \u201cthe world\u2019s biggest prison for professional journalists,\u201d as a government crackdown since an attempted coup in 2016 has gutted the independent press and led to lengthy jail sentences for reporters. Many journalists spend more than a year in detention before even facing court, the group said.
\nSeveral other European countries have taken action against Saudi Arabia following Khashoggi\u2019s murder, including Germany, France, Denmark and Finland, and have also used the opportunity to push Riyadh for a resolution to the Yemen war.
\nFrance on Thursday followed Germany in banning and sanctioning 18 Saudi citizens from entering the country. European Union nations have mulled joint action to ban Saudi individuals from the wider visa-free Schengen zone. Germany, Denmark and Finland have also restricted arms deals with Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Turkey\u2019s top diplomat urged US President not to \u2018distance himself from human values\u2019 NEWS DESK WASHINGTON Turkey\u2019s foreign minister has accused President Donald Trump of turning a blind eye in the high-profile murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a day after the US leader doubled down in his defense of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36881,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-36869","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n