Iran has been playing it cool as it watches the furore over the disappearance of writer Jamal Khashoggi create a crisis for its regional rival Saudi Arabia.
As of Wednesday, the Government had yet to make any official comment on the alleged murder of Khashoggi who vanished after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.
Barraged by questions at his weekly press conference on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said only that Iran was monitoring events.
The Iranian press has been reprinting the gruesome claims from Turkish and other international sources that Khashoggi was tortured and dismembered inside the consulate, and on Wednesday alleged a cover-up by Riyadh and Washington.
“US, Turkey and Saudi colluding to close the murder case of Jamal Khashoggi,” read the headline on Wednesday’s Jomhour-i Eslami as it reported on US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to Riyadh and Ankara.