The mysterious disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has rocked Riyadh to such a degree that King Salman decided to send a trusted emissary to Istanbul to help defuse the crisis, according to a report.
With his son Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman struggling to contain the fallout, the king sent Prince Khaled al-Faisal, Mecca’s governor, on Oct. 11 to the city where Khashoggi vanished nine days earlier, five sources with ties to the royal family told Reuters.
During Prince Khaled’s visit, Turkey and Saudi Arabia agreed to form a joint working group to investigate the Washington Post columnist’s disappearance after he visited the Saudi consulate. The king later ordered the Saudi public prosecutor to launch an investigation.
“The selection of Khaled, a senior royal with high status, is telling as he is the king’s personal adviser, his right-hand man and has had very strong ties and a friendship with (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan,” a source told Reuters.
King Salman has been “asserting himself” in handling the matter after the prince’s meeting with Erdogan, said another source, a Saudi businessman who lives abroad but has close ties to the royal family.
Saudi officials did not immediately respond to questions from Reuters about the king’s involvement in helping to manage the expanding crisis.
A spokesman for Prince Khaled referred Reuters to government reps in Riyadh.
Turkish officials have said they believe Khashoggi was murdered at the Saudi consulate and his body removed, and two Turkish sources have told Reuters police have audio recordings to back up that assertion
Saudi Arabia has vehemently denied the allegations.
At first, King Salman — who has handed the day-to-day running of his country to his son — was unaware of the scope of the crisis, two of the sources told the news outlet.
But as the international pressure grew, particularly from the US, the king began to notice.
“Even if MbS wanted to keep this away from the king, he couldn’t because the story about Khashoggi’s disappearance was on all the Arab and Saudi TV channels watched by the king,” a source said, using the colloquial reference to the crown prince.
“The king started asking aides and MbS about it. MbS had to tell him and asked him to intervene when Khashoggi’s case became a global crisis,” the source said.