Bloomberg | Selcan Hacaoglu�and Onur Ant:�Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has �blood on his hands� in the killing of government critic Jamal Khashoggi, a top aide to Turkey�s president said, in his country�s first direct accusation against the power behind the Saudi throne.

The allegation by Ilnur Cevik came a day after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the killing was pre-planned but stopped short of implicating the brash young leader, whose ambitions for a modernized Saudi Arabia have been undermined by his penchant for making enemies at home and abroad. On Wednesday, Erdogan escalated that rhetoric, saying those who ordered the murder should also face justice.

�It is a futile gesture trying to distance the crown prince from the monstrous atrocity that has been committed by the Saudis,� Cevik said in a column published on Wednesday. �U.S. President Donald Trump may try to stand up for MBS so Washington can use him for its plans against Iran; however, from now on, wherever the crown prince goes, he will be regarded as the man with Khashoggi�s blood on his hands.�

Khashoggi�s killing has strained the already testy ties between Turkey and Saudi Arabia, two regional powerhouses jockeying for supremacy in the Muslim world. Erdogan has been leveraging the international outrage over the case to further damage the image of Saudi Arabia. He�s now turning the spotlight increasingly on its de facto ruler, whose efforts to cast himself as a trustworthy ally and reformer have bumped into the less-flattering reality of a ruthless consolidation of power and failed foreign policy adventures such as the war in Yemen and boycott of Qatar.

After insisting for two weeks that Khashoggi had left the Saudi consulate in Istanbul shortly after entering on Oct. 2 to obtain papers for his upcoming marriage, the kingdom said the 59-year-old was killed when a discussion escalated into a brawl. For years an adviser to a senior royal, Khashoggi fell out of favor with Prince Mohammed�s rise to power and went into self-imposed exile last year in the U.S. From there, he wrote columns in the Washington Post criticizing the changes taking place in Saudi Arabia.

The shifting Saudi narrative on what happened to the increasingly outspoken Khashoggi has been met with widespread skepticism, even from Saudi allies.

Trump Calls Cover-Up

U.S. President Donald Trump, whose response was initially muted, criticized the Saudi accounts on Tuesday as �one of the worst� cover-ups in history and said he would leave it largely to Congress to decide what to do.

Lawmakers from both the Republican and Democratic parties have called for stiff penalties on Saudi Arabia and some are pushing to block weapons sales to the kingdom, a move Trump had publicly opposed due to concerns that American companies and workers would lose out.

As international outrage has kept the controversy on the front pages for nearly a month, however, the U.S. position has hardened. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said on Tuesday that the U.S. was moving against individuals it suspects were involved in the killing, without identifying their names or nationalities. The U.S. is revoking or blocking visas for 21 suspects in the incident and reviewing the possibility of sanctions against them.

The controversy has overshadowed a three-day investment conference in Riyadh that began on Tuesday, where a smiling Prince Mohammed posed for photographs and Saudi officials sought to restrict the damage from the killing.

A brainchild of MBS, as Saudi Arabia�s 33-year-old de facto ruler is known, the Future Investment Initiative was envisaged as a forum for international investors to engage with his ambitious economic agenda. At the inaugural event last year, the world�s largest oil exporter unveiled plans for a $500 billion futuristic city called Neom. Shortly after the conference ended, however, dozens of prominent businessmen and royals were rounded up and detained in the same luxurious Ritz-Carlton hotel. They were accused of corruption, with most eventually freed after signing over tens of billions of dollars worth of assets.

�Like a Curse�

This year, dozens of top international executives and foreign dignitaries dropped out of the business event as grisly allegations were leaked to the media by unnamed Turkish officials. Attendance was drawn more from Saudi Arabia and the region, and many checked their phones for the latest news on Khashoggi.

Erdogan�s widely anticipated comments on the case on Tuesday were timed to coincide with day one of the Saudi conference. Prince Mohammed is due to speak on a panel at the event later on Wednesday. While he hasn�t mentioned the crown prince in his speeches, the Turkish leader, who has made his country a haven for Arab dissidents, has pointedly said that the culprits should be punished no matter how senior. He kept up the pressure on Wednesday, saying those responsible would face justice.

The Saudis have much to explain to the international community and are doing a very poor job, Cevik added.

�Their explanations, alibis and statements are full of contradictions that keep adding to the massive fiasco Riyadh is facing,� Cevik said. �The Khashoggi murder will linger like a curse, haunting Mohammed bin Salman throughout his journey to become the new king of Saudi Arabia.�
(Adds hardening U.S. position from sixth paragraph.)