The visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Saudi Arabia, which took place on March 10, could have been organized against the backdrop of a change in Washington's course towards Riyadh. American journalists saw a similar secret meaning in the trip of the Russian minister, Kommersant writes.
As the newspaper notes, Lavrov became the first high-ranking diplomat from countries outside the Middle East region who met with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after the United States openly accused him of involvement in the murder of journalist Jemal Hashkuji and imposed sanctions on 76 Saudi nationals. Arabia. As a result, one of the American journalists accredited in Riyadh suggested that such a coincidence was not accidental, and the visit was deliberately planned by Moscow to take advantage of the chill in relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia. The correspondent addressed the corresponding question to the members of the delegation of the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
However, representatives of the Russian foreign policy department stressed that Lavrov's trip was not related to recent changes in Washington's policy towards its former ally in the Middle East. They stressed that the visit to Riyadh had been in the minister's plans for more than a month. At the same time, the Foreign Ministry acknowledged that the direct preparation of negotiations in the department began only recently, which, however, is rather explained by the “Middle East realities” in general.
On February 26, US National Intelligence released a report in which it accused the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad bin Salman, of approving an operation to kidnap or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Hashkuji. After that, the US administration imposed visa sanctions on 76 citizens of Saudi Arabia, who, according to the State Department, “threatened dissidents abroad, appeared in the murder of Hashkuji, and not only in it.”
Hashkuji disappeared on October 2, 2018 after a visit to the Saudi Consulate General in Istanbul. The journalist went there to obtain documents that would help him to file a divorce and marry a Turkish woman. Turkish media, citing sources in law enforcement and investigative agencies, reported that the authorities have confirmation that Hashkuji was brutally tortured in the consulate building and then killed.
