US National Security Advisor John Bolton on November 13 told reporters that an audio tape of the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul may not implicate Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The recording, provided to foreign intelligence agencies by Turkish officials, does not directly implicate bin Salman "in the assessment of those who have listened to it," Bolton, who added that he had not listened to the tape himself, said.

Bolton, presently in Singapore where he is attending the ASEAN-US Summit and the East Asia Summit, made his comments after the New York Times reported that on the tape a member of the Saudi hit team dispatched to Istanbul to kill Khashoggi is heard telling one of his superiors by phone to “tell your boss” the operation was accomplished, an apparent reference to Prince Mohammed. Meanwhile, a Turkish newspaper published x-ray images of the team’s luggage, which included defibrillators and syringes.

US President Donald Trump has previously expressed his wish to protect the US-Saudi relationship, especially its commercial side, but his administration remains under heavy pressure to punish Saudi Arabia. Bin Salman has stood four-square behind Trump's strategy of strangling Iran's economy with sanctions in a bid to force Tehran to alter its role in Middle East affairs and should he be forced to step down there could be implications for that policy. In the past couple of days the Saudis have lowered their oil production targets in a move to push up oil prices, snubbing Trump's demands that they stick with production levels that will help lower prices. The change may amount to a shot across the bows of the US designed to signal that Riyadh demands the Americans defend the crown prince in the Khashoggi controversy.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan late on November 12 claimed the audio recordings shocked a Saudi intelligence official. Speaking to media on his return to Ankara from WWI commemorations in France, he said the killing was discussed with his US, French and German counterparts.

“We played the recordings regarding this murder to everyone who wanted them from us. Our intelligence organisation did not hide anything. We played them to all who wanted them including the Saudis, the USA, France, Canada, Germany, Britain,” he said.

Recordings “really appalling”
“The recordings are really appalling. Indeed, when the Saudi intelligence officer listened to the recordings he was so shocked he said: ‘This one must have taken heroin, only someone who takes heroin would do this’.”

Trump anticipates that the truth about the murder will come out eventually, Bolton also said. Saudi Arabian officials were still investigating the case, and the US would follow their progress very closely, he added.

Erdogan is reportedly unconvinced that bin Salman should remain in power as the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia despite the Khashoggi murder scandal.

In a November 12 report suggesting that the crown prince, known as MbS, has “had his wings clipped”, the Guardian’s Middle East correspondent wrote that “six weeks after Jamal Khashoggi was murdered by Saudi agents, the decision-making process in Riyadh is slowly starting to change. Fallout from the assassination in Istanbul has wounded Mohammed bin Salman, the heir to the throne, and given a second wind to an old guard of elders, whose views are once more being heard”.

“Doesn’t have the swagger”
“MbS has had his wings clipped,” a source was quoted as saying in the report. “There’s no doubt about it. He doesn’t have the same swagger, and he’s just as scared of a mis-step as the next guy. That’s a big change.”

The key question remains whether the audio tapes or other proof determines whether or not MbS is or is not culpable for the killing of Khashoggi. The Saudis have argued that the murder was committed by a team of agents that went “rogue” and that the crown prince had no knowledge of their Khashoggi plan. Western officials reportedly find that suggestion incredible.

The newspaper report added: “Publicly, the Kingdom’s leaders appear chastened and contrite in the wake of Khashoggi’s gruesome killing inside the Saudi consulate. In private though, senior members of the House of Saud, including the crown prince, are partly blaming Turkey for the global revulsion, which they say could have been contained if Ankara had played by ‘regional rules’.

“Central to the resentment, according to sources close to the royal court in Riyadh, is a view that the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan betrayed the Kingdom by disclosing details of the investigation and refusing all overtures from Saudi envoys, including an offer to pay ‘significant’ compensation. ‘They say they were betrayed by the Turks,’ a regional source said. ‘That’s where they are in their most private thoughts.’”

There is little appetite in London or Washington for Prince Mohammed to be removed, and Ankara—which is strongly opposed to the Crown Prince, but not at odds with King Salman whom it has said bears no responsibility for what happened to Khashoggi—is “being lobbied heavily by Riyadh’s allies to accept the fact that Prince Mohammed will not be ousted,” the report added.