Saudi Arabia will try the men suspected of murdering Jamal Khashoggi, the country’s foreign minister has said, despite Turkey demanding they be handed over to Ankara.
Referring to what he called “the Khashoggi incident”, Adel al-Jubeir said the 18 people detained would be prosecuted in Saudi Arabia.
Addressing an audience of Gulf security leaders in Bahrain, Mr Jubeir said Saudi Arabia had tried to share information with the public about the killing, ”but unfortunately there has been this hysteria in the media about Saudi Arabia’s guilt before the investigation is completed.”
He was responding to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, who on Friday renewed his call for the 18 men to be extradited for trial in Turkey.
Khashoggi, 59, who had lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 2017, vanished after entering the consulate on October 2 to obtain paperwork for his marriage to his Turkish fiancee
“We have Saudi law enforcement people working with our Turkish friends to uncover the facts,” Mr Jubeir told the Manama Dialogue, an annual security summit held in the Gulf country.
“Everyday we uncover new things. New evidence comes to light. As a result the picture begins to emerge. We know a mistake was committed. We know that people exceeded their authority."
Also speaking at the event, Jim Mattis, the US Secretary of Defence, criticised the Saudi authorities, saying the incident undermined Middle Eastern stability.
“The murder of Jamal Khashoggi in a diplomatic facility must concern us all greatly. The US does not tolerate this sort of ruthless action. Failure of any one nation to adhere to international norms and the rule of law undermines regional stability,” he said.
“We’re going to get to the bottom of it.”
Mr Jubeir, however, insisted that US-Saudi relations would weather the fallout of Khashoggi’s murder.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has a strategic relationship with the United States that goes back to the 1930s. That relationship is iron clad. This is not going to change. We have seen the coming and breaking of many storms,” he said.
Not all delegates were convinced the US would maintain such a robust position with its key partner in the Gulf.
Dr Ebtesam Alketbi of the Emirates Policy Centre, an Abu Dhabi-based think tank, thought the Khashoggi murder would ultimately have little impact on the region.
"I do not trust the US,” she told the Telegraph. “They like to put their cards with everybody.”