Saudi Arabia and Turkey have reportedly agreed to form a joint working team to investigate the circumstances surrounding the disappearance and suspected murder inside the Saudis’ Istanbul consulate of journalist and Riyadh critic Jamal Khashoggi.

The move follows a conversation between White House aide Jared Kushner, who is also Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman earlier this week, Middle East Eye reported on October 11. The London-based publication added that a senior source with knowledge of the Turkish investigation told it that the Saudis are on the verge of accepting Turkey’s evidence that a major crime took place at the consulate. “The Saudis intend to blame elements within their country’s deep state, security establishment for the journalist’s kidnapping,” the news outlet reported a source as saying.

“The source said the Saudis are hoping to build a firewall around bin Salman, who has insisted he knows nothing about any alleged kidnapping operation,” it added.

The idea to set up the "joint working group" on the case of the missing Saudi journalist—who was self-exiled and living in Washington, DC—came from Saudi Arabia, Ibrahim Kalin, a spokesperson for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency.

Turkey is wary of upsetting its economic and already strained diplomatic relationship with fellow major Middle East power Saudi Arabia and, reports indicate, might back the “deep state” explanation.

US ‘will not forgo arms sales’
The White House, meanwhile, has been painfully slow in publicly recognising the gravity of the Khashoggi affair and on October 11, Trump—who badly needs Saudi Arabia’s support in his sanctions-led economic assault on Riyadh’s regional arch-rival Iran—said that while US investigators are looking into how Khashoggi vanished, Washington, whatever the outcome of the probe, would not forgo lucrative arms sales to the Saudis.

The Guardian reported that Trump’s announcement raised concerns of a cover-up of evidence implicating Crown Prince Mohammed in plans to silence the dissident journalist and that those fears were heightened by the announcement that the Turkish and Saudi governments would conduct a joint investigation into the case.

Pointing out that the US could lose its share of the huge Saudi arms market to Russia or China, Trump, who has close relatons with the Saudi royal family, said in the Oval Office: “We don’t like it even a little bit. But whether or not we should stop $110bn from being spent in this country—knowing they have … two very good alternatives. That would not be acceptable to me … I don’t like stopping massive amounts of money that’s being poured into our country—they are spending $110bn on military equipment and on things that create jobs for this country.”

Whether Trump’s stance will meet with opposition from congressional Republicans is still open to question.

“No question the Saudis did this”
Leading Republican Senator Bob Corker, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committe, said on October 11 that he believed Khashoggi was murdered and that "there is no question the Saudis did this".

He told CNN that the "intel points directly" to Saudi Arabia for the disappearance of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, and added that the Saudis need to "produce" the 59-year-old father of four to dispel concerns.

Speaking to MSNBC, Corker said he had seen intelligence in a secure room at the Senate and concluded: “It does appear that he’s been murdered, and I think over the next several days, things are going to become much clearer.”

Corker and 21 other senators have, meanwhile, sent a formal letter to Trump triggering a mandatory US investigation into Khashoggi’s fate. Under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, the administration would have to report on the conclusions of the investigation and come to a decision on sanctions against identified perpetrators.