Source: The New York Times
By David D. Kirkpatrick and Ben Hubbard
ANKARA, Turkey — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has long cast himself as a champion of the Arab Spring uprisings and the political Islamists who once seemed poised to ride them to power.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia anchors the opposite camp in an ideological battle raging across the Middle East: the anti-Islamist strongmen who quashed the revolts.
The two leaders, each the head of a major regional power, have until now kept their relations cordial in the interest of stability. But over the past week, tensions between them have erupted over the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist who vanished after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul nine days ago.
Categories: Middle East, Saudi Arabia, The Muslim Times, Turkey