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Southeast Europe
October 19, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 14
— and have threatened retaliation should Saudi Arabia be punished with sanctions over the affair.
After meeting with Erdogan and Cavusoglu, Pompeo told a media briefing that the US was not giving Riyadh the “benefit of the doubt” over the disappearance of Khashoggi, but he made it clear that the Trump administration would take commercial ties and Saudi cooperation in the at- tempted isolation of Iran into consideration when devising a response to the events.
Before meeting Pompeo, Erdogan told media that Turkish police had found freshly painted walls and “toxic” substances during a search of the consulate.
“He [Erdogan] made clear that the Saudis had cooperated with the investigation that the Turks are engaged in, and that they are going to share
Macedonian MPs start critical debate on country name change
Valentina Dimitrievska in Skopje
The Macedonian parliament launched the debate on constitutional changes on October 15 related to the contested name deal with Greece, under which the country’s name will be changed to North Macedonia. The main opposition party is vehemently against the deal and it is unclear whether the government will put together a large enough majority to pass it.
Macedonia and Greece signed the name deal in June to solve the 27-year old dispute
information that they learned with the Saudis as well,” Pompeo said. “There had been a couple of delays but they seemed pretty confident that the Saudis would permit them to do the things they needed to do to complete their thorough and complete investigation.”
Pompeo also spoke of a serious commitment in Riyadh to “determine all the facts and ensure ac- countability”.
In an interview with The Associated Press, US President Donald Trump — who last week said that he would not place his country’s multi-bil- lion-dollar arms deals with the Saudis in jeopardy in his response to the Khashoggi affair — stated that Riyadh had again denied it had anything to do with the journalist’s disappearance and remained “innocent until proven guilty”.
A two-thirds majority is needed in the Macedonian parliament (pictured) for the changes to be passed.
between the two-neighbours, which had blocked Macedonia’s Euro-Atlantic integration process.
During the first day of the session, lawmakers from the governing Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) were trying to persuade the conservative opposition VMRO-DPMNE MPs to vote for the changes, and stressed the benefits of implementing the deal.
The parliament has to approve the changes with