IRNA Iranian envoy to London Hamid Baeidinejad in a message urged British newspaper 'The Guardian' to stick to professionalism and ethics and reveal issues over the so-called 'Saudi source'.
Guardian has recently quoted a source as saying that Prince Mohammed, who many believe is responsible for the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, is the force behind Iran International. The station, which is operating out of Chiswick, has not denied claims that it receives its funding from the Saudi royal court.
'The source claimed Saud al-Qahtani, the crown princes information tsar, who was among two senior officials removed in connection with the Khashoggi affair, was involved in the funding behind Iran International TV,' Guardian added.
You could have a larger picture about how those kids [Saudi media moguls] with that money being thrown around [by Prince Mohammed] trying to change the world by buying media It is money coming from the royal court, the source was quoted as saying while speaking about Saudi Crown Prince.
Referring to Guardian reports, Baeidinejad tweeted on Sunday that 'On Oct2, @Guardian revealed Saudi $ behind @IranIntl, citing an informed 'Saudi source'. Given its recent further revelations, it raises question of whether source was Khashoggi.'
'With controversy surrounding it, ethics & professionalism dictate that Guardian should confirm if so,' he added.
The 59-year-old Saudi investigative journalist, who had left the country since Bin Salman was named Crown Prince and moved to the US, vanished on October second after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul to collect documents for his forthcoming marriage.
After 18 days of silence and rejecting claims that Khashoggi was killed, the Saudi government finally bowed down to international pressure and admitted the prominent journalist was killed inside Istanbul consulate.
Following the confession, the Saudi king, Salman bin Abdulaziz sacked, in separate orders, some top officials, including Saud al-Qahtani, royal court advisor who is a close aide to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Ahmed al-Asiri, Saudi Arabia's deputy intelligence chief who was formerly the Saudi-led coalition spokesman, Major General Abdullah bin Khalifa Al-Shaya, Assistant Chief of General Intelligence for Human Resources and General Rashad Bin Hamed Al Mohammadi, the Director of the General Directorate of Security and Protection at the General Intelligence.