Iran is accusing the United States of abetting and tacitly approving the murder of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi earlier this month.
The evidence is conclusive the exiled journalist was murdered inside the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Istanbul by operatives of the Saudi Arabian government, perhaps acting on the direct order of Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman. The Crown Prince, however, has denied any role in the murder.
Bin Salman yesterday vowed the killers of Khashoggi will be brought to justice in his first public comments since the journalist's murder sparked global outrage and condemnation. Khashoggi was murdered Oct. 2. The Saudi governments have given multiple versions about Khashoggi's death.
One version says the journalist was killed in a shootout inside the Consulate. Another claims Khashoggi died accidentally from a stranglehold. Khashoggi's body has not been produced by Saudi Arabia, however.
Iran emphasized Saudi Arabia would not have murdered Khashoggi without American protection. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday no one would imagine that in today's world and a new century, the world would witness such an organized murder and a system would plan out such a heinous murder.
He didn't think Saudi Arabia would dare commit such a crime without the protection of America.
Rouhani said U.S. protection has allowed Saudi Arabia to carry out bombings against civilians in Yemen's Civil War. He noted that if there was no American protection, would the people of Yemen still have faced the same brutal bombing?
Rouhani also asked Ankara to conduct an impartial investigation into Khashoggi's "unprecedented" murder.
Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia are regional rivals locked in a geopolitical battle for leadership of the Muslim world. Saudi Arabia and Iran currently support opposing sides of the Yemen Civil War and the Syrian Civil War.
Khashoggi, 59, was likely tortured then murdered at the consulate in Istanbul sometime after Oct. 2 when he entered the consulate. Initial reports said his corpse was allegedly cut to pieces and smuggled out of Turkey.
Khashoggi has repeatedly lambasted the Crown Prince's reforms as hollow. He also accused the prince of introducing a new era of "fear, intimidation, arrests and public shaming." Initial accounts said the Saudi assassins tortured Khashoggi for several days inside the Saudi consulate.
The hit squad finished the murder operation inside two hours and departed Turkey the same day, according to information from Turkish sources.
Turkish sources also said U.S. intelligence intercepted communications of Saudi officials planning to abduct Khashoggi. The dissident journalist, who went into self-exile over a year ago out of fear for his life, visited the Saudi consulate to comply with the routine paperwork required of expatriates.
