Reuters news agency is reporting that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman left Tunisia for Argentina to attend the G20 summit, where all eyes will be on world leaders’ reaction to the man accused of ordering Khashoggi’s murder.
The prince left Tunisia early on Wednesday, Reuters quoted Alarabiya’s website as saying.
The crown prince’s G20 attendance is a bold effort to force the issue of whether world leaders will work with Saudi Arabia, analysts say. Riyadh is also indicating with his appearance in Buenos Aires that Prince Mohammed is back in the saddle and the worst of the controversy is over.
Human Rights Watch requested that Argentine authorities arrest the crown prince and that he be tried by a court for war crimes in Yemen and Khashoggi’s killing.
Actually Saudi Arabia has admitted Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside its consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul.
Khashoggi – a Saudi writer, United States resident and Washington Post columnist – had entered the building on October 2 to obtain documentation certifying he had divorced his ex-wife so he could remarry.
After weeks of repeated denials that it had anything to do with his disappearance, the kingdom eventually acknowledged that its officials were behind the gruesome murder. The whereabouts of his body are still unknown.
American officials face Senate grilling over Khashoggi murder, Yemen war
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Pentagon chief James Mattis will brief the US Senate on Wednesday on the latest developments related to Saudi Arabia.
The closed-door briefing could determine how far Congress goes in punishing its long-time Middle East ally over Khashoggi’s murder.
Many US lawmakers, including some of President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans, as well as Democrats, have expressed concern about Khashoggi’s killing at the Saudi consulate in Turkey last month and the war in Yemen, which has created one of the world’s most urgent humanitarian disasters.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says “some kind of response” is needed from the United States for the Saudis’ role in the gruesome death. While President Donald Trump has equivocated over who is to blame, the Senate is considering a vote as soon as this week to halt US involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen.
“What obviously happened, as basically certified by the CIA, is completely abhorrent to everything the United States holds dear and stands for in the world,” McConnell said. “We’re discussing what the appropriate response would be.”
Mattis and Pompeo are expected to address the Senate at 16:00 GMT in Washington, DC.