Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said in an interview released on Tuesday that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had asked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to meet on the sidelines of the upcoming G20 meeting in Buenos Aires.
"He asked Erdoğan during a phone conversation if they can meet in Buenos Aires. Erdoğan said 'will see,'" Çavuşoğlu said in an interview with Germany's Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.
Commenting on the recent remark by US President Donald Trump saying that the Saudi crown prince "may or may not" have known about the killing of Saudi citizen Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, Çavuşoğlu said that he did not know if the United States had any evidence that Ankara had not found.
"I do not know why Trump said that. I do not know if the United States has any evidence ... that we do not possess either. 'Perhaps' is not enough for us, we should be confident," Çavuşoğlu stated.
Saudi Arabia and Turkey are clashing "over the murder of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi," 59, inside the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul last month.
Khashoggi, who was considered close to the Saudi royal family was a former newspaper editor in Saudi Arabia. He advised Prince Turki al-Faisal, former Saudi intelligence chief, and has also been close to billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.
Middle East insiders say some deeper subplots played into Khashoggi’s death — ties to Saudi intelligence and his relationship with the Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman branded the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization.
