The correspondent today Tweeted that his source was actually Khashoggi
Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed last month in the e Saudi consulate in Istanbul, may have been murdered for exposing Riyadh’s funding of an anti-Iran UK-based TV channel, according to The Guardian.
In an article published on October 2, the Guardian referred to a source close to the Saudi government as claiming the anti-Iran TV channel Iran International received a supposed $250m (£192m) from m the Saudi royal court each year
The correspondent today Tweeted that his source was actually Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist who was killed on the same day the report was published.
Below is the Tweet:
I can confirm that Jamal Khashoggi was killed because of speaking to me on the phone from Istanbul in the morning on 26 September, revealing that London-based Iran International TV was funded by Mohammad Bin Salman and Saud al-Qahtani.
“My request to all family and friends is not to contact me at this moment, except very trusted one. My mum knows how to contact me. I trust my mum and a few people here,” he said in the tweet. However, he later deleted all his tweets regarding the case.
Iran’s Ambassador to London Hamid Baeidinejad praised the Guardian correspondent in a tweet and warned about the “risks” which he may encounter.
“Mr. Kamali Dehghan, the Guardian correspondent, confirmed in a brave step that Khashoggi had revealed before his death to him information about the establishment of the Persian-language ‘Iran International’ network by Saudi authorities,” he wrote.
“The relevant authorities are aware of possible risks to Mr. Kamali and the embassy is also in contact with them,” Baeidinejad added.
According to PressTV: Last month, the Guardian also reported that the Iran International was being funded through a secretive offshore entity and a company whose director was a Saudi Arabian businessman with close links to bin Salman.
The source told the Guardian that Saud al-Qahtani, who served as media adviser to MBS and was among several senior officials removed in connection with Khashoggi’s murder, was involved in the funding of Iran International.
“It is money coming from the royal court,” the source – now revealed to be Khashoggi – said, when speaking about the Saudi crown prince.
A UK-based anti-Iran Persian language television channel is being funded through a secretive offshore entity with close links to Saudi Arabia, UK media have revealed.
Earlier this summer, the Iran International came under fire for praising a terrorist attack in Iran’s Ahvaz and broadcasting live coverage of a rally by the anti-Iran terrorist group Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO).
At the time, the Guardian took note of Press TV’s complaint that the Western and Saudi media were refraining from terming the deadly attack as a terrorist act despite the large number of civilian casualties in the incident.
Ofcom is probing a news program aired by a London-based TV which condoned a terrorist attack in Iran.
Khashoggi, an outspoken critic of bin Salman, entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, but never came back.
The Saudi kingdom, after denying the murder for several days, finally admitted that Khashoggi had been murdered in the consulate during an interrogation by rogue operatives that had gone wrong after diplomatic pressure grew tremendously on Riyadh to give an account on the mysterious fate of its national.
However, Saudi Arabia said that it did not know the whereabouts of the body, which is widely believed to have been dismembered.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan later announced the assassination had been ordered at the “highest levels” of the Saudi government.