Turkey slams Trump for turning ‘blind eye’ in Khashoggi murder
|Istanbul, Turkey (CNN)Turkey’s foreign minister has accused President Donald Trump of turning a blind eye in the high-profile murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a day after the US leader doubled down in his defense of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
During a Thanksgiving call with US troops on Thursday, Trump again undermined the CIA’s assessment that bin Salman had personally ordered Khashoggi’s killing. Saudi officials admit that the Washington Post columnist was killed at their consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, last month but have vehemently denied that bin Salman was involved.
“In a way, Mr. Trump’s statement means ‘Come what may, I will turn a blind eye on this.’ This approach is wrong. Money is not everything. We should not distance ourselves from human values,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told CNN Turk, a CNN affiliate.