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IRAN-TURKEY-SAUDI-US-DIPLOMACY
Iran stays quiet on Khashoggi case
TEHRAN, Oct 17, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Iran has been playing it cool as it
watches the furore over the disappearance of writer Jamal Khashoggi create a
crisis for its regional rival Saudi Arabia.
As of Wednesday, the government had yet to make any official comment on
the alleged murder of Khashoggi who vanished after entering the Saudi
consulate in Istanbul on October 2.
Barraged by questions at his weekly press conference on Monday, foreign
ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said only that Iran was monitoring events.
The Iranian press has been reprinting the gruesome claims from Turkish
and other international sources that Khashoggi was tortured and dismembered
inside the consulate, and on Wednesday alleged a cover-up by Riyadh and
Washington.
“US, Turkey and Saudi colluding to close the murder case of Jamal
Khashoggi,” read the headline on Wednesday’s Jomhuri Eslami, a conservative
paper, as it reported on US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to Riyadh
and Ankara.
“Pompeo’s mission in travelling to Riyadh and then Turkey is to cover up
Saudi brutality and scandal by making up stories, and this very project is an
excuse to keep milking the Saudis (for weapons’ contracts),” added the Javan
newspaper, considered close to the Revolutionary Guards.
Reza Ghabishavi, in the reformist Arman newspaper, acknowledged the
silence from Iran’s leaders over the case.
“The whole world… has reacted, but after two weeks, Iran has made no
remarks,” he wrote.
“Of course, it’s obvious the whole thing is in the interests of Iran
because on the one hand it has caused serious differences between America and
Saudi Arabia, and on the other hand, the young prince’s reforms in Saudi
Arabia have been destroyed in the public opinion of the world,” he added.
– ‘Terrorist Wahhabis’ –
Ghabishavi also pointed out that Khashoggi was no friend of Iran, having
strongly criticised the country’s foreign interventions in Yemen, Syria and
Iraq.
The case comes just a few weeks before full US sanctions are reimposed on
Iran following Washington’s decision to scrap the 2015 nuclear deal.
Although the sanctions have contributed to a sharp economic downturn in
Iran, its leaders have relished a rare opportunity to hold the moral high
ground on the international scene, as much of the world criticises the
aggression of US moves against Iran.
“Everyone knows that America has lost legally and politically by giving
up on its international obligations and that we have achieved victory,” said
President Hassan Rouhani in a speech on Sunday.
The Tehran Times emphasised that Khashoggi’s alleged assassination was
the inevitable result of the West’s long-running support for Saudi monarchs.
“This is your own doing,” wrote editor-in-chief Mohammad Ghaderi,
addressing Western governments.
“You pick puppets to rule over (their) lands… and back terrorist
Wahhabis,” he said, referring to the fundamentalist Saudi interpretation of
Islam.
BSS/AFP/RY/1658 hrs