At about noon on Tuesday two regional leaders are due to make landmark addresses. In Riyadh, the\u00a0de\u00a0facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, will open an investment showpiece declaring the kingdom open for business. In Ankara, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan, is expected to make a speech that may well shut down the beleaguered kingdom.<\/p>\n
Such are the stakes when Erdo\u011fan takes to a podium to discuss the death of the Saudi dissident\u00a0Jamal Khashoggi\u00a0that the region may not be the same when he\u2019s finished.<\/p>\n
Three weeks to the day since Khashoggi vanished after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Erdo\u011fan has pledged to table the \u201cnaked truth\u201d about what happened to the columnist and critic, whose fate continues to grip both countries and polarise the Middle East.<\/p>\n
If he stays true to his pledge, much of the evidence that Turkey has gathered, incriminating\u00a0Saudi Arabiain a plot to kill Khashoggi, will be revealed: in pictures, video and even bloodcurdling audio said to document his torture and death.<\/p>\n
Setting the scene on Monday, a spokesman for the ruling party for the first time described Khashoggi\u2019s death as a \u201ccomplicated murder\u201d that was \u201cmonstrously planned\u201d.<\/p>\n
That Erdo\u011fan, not his bureaucrats, is now prepared to put his name to the material takes this extraordinary event to a new level. The Turkish strongman is expected to accuse the inner sanctum of power in Riyadh of organising a hit on Khashoggi, directly contradicting its\u00a0claims that state officers had acted beyond their authority\u00a0in an attempt to please their masters.<\/p>\n
Such an allegation carries with it a weight not yet seen in Riyadh, where blanket early denials had first given way to\u00a0begrudging disclosures, then partial admissions, cover-ups and fall guys. Dread is the order of the day, as the\u00a0already-troubled investment conference\u00a0looms. And in some quarters of the royal court, a palpable sense of panic has taken hold.<\/p>\n