Erdogan and bin Salman discuss Khashoggi's killing

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Wednesday discussed the joint efforts to uncover all aspects of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to a Turkish presidential source.

The phone call between Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was made at the latter's request, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media.

The two leaders also discussed the steps to be taken on the matter.

Prince Mohammed told a major investment conference in Riyadh that the killers of Jamal Khashoggi would be brought to justice, in his first public comments since the journalist's murder sparked international condemnation.

He said that Saudi Arabia and Turkey would work together "to reach results" on a joint investigation into the killing.

"The incident that happened is very painful, for all Saudis ... The incident is not justifiable," the crown prince said on a discussion panel. "Justice in the end will appear."

He described cooperation between Riyadh and Ankara as "special".

Hours earlier US President Donald Trump, in his toughest comments yet, told the Wall Street Journal that the crown prince bore ultimate responsibility for the operation that led to the Saudi journalist's killing.

TRT World 's Alaattin Kilic reports.

Trump said he wanted to believe Crown Prince Mohammed when he said that lower-level officials were to blame for the October 2 killing at the Saudi mission in Istanbul.

But he suggested responsibility lay higher up, "Well, the prince is running things over there moreso at this stage. He's running things and so if anybody were going to be, it would be him."

His comments heaped pressure on his close ally amid a global outcry over the journalist's death, and came hours before Crown Prince Mohammed's appearance at the Saudi investment conference.

A number of high profile business and political figures have pulled out of the conference over the death of the journalist, a prominent critic of Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler.

Turkish criticism

An adviser to Turkey's president said Crown Prince Mohammed had "blood on his hands" over Khashoggi, the bluntest language yet from someone linked to Erdogan.

Saudi authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the remarks by Trump and the Erdogan adviser but Crown Prince Mohammed painted a different picture of relations with Turkey.

"There are now those who are trying to take advantage of the painful situation to create divisions between the kingdom and Turkey," he said.

"I want to send them a message that they cannot do this as long as King Salman is here, and the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is in Saudi Arabia and the head of Turkey, whose name is Erdogan ... this division won’t happen."

Riyadh has blamed a "rogue operation" for the death of the prominent Saudi journalist and said the crown prince had no knowledge of the killing.

The death of Khashoggi, a US resident and Washington Post columnist, has sparked global outrage and threatened relations between Riyadh and Washington as well as other Western nations.

For Saudi Arabia’s allies, the burning question has been whether they believe that Crown Prince Mohammed, who has painted himself as a reformer, has any culpability in the killing, a possibility raised by several US lawmakers.