SAUDI’S Arabia’s Crown Prince has cracked a joke about kidnapping and burst into laughter on stage as he faces global outrage over the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The poorly timed joke, told while he addressed the Future Investment Initiative forum in Riyadh, referred to allegations that Lebanon’s premier-designate Saad Hariri was detained in the kingdom last year.

This week Hariri publicly backed the Saudis as they faced heat over Khashoggi’s murder.

Last November, Hariri mysteriously resigned in a televised address from the Saudi capital, sparking rumours he had been forced to do it.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was sitting beside Hariri when he quipped that he “will be staying in the kingdom for two more days, so I hope there are no rumours of his abduction,” before bursting into laughter and shaking Hariri’s hand.

Hariri smiled and offered a wave to the audience who heavily applauded the Crown Prince’s joke.

Saudi Arabia has long been a key ally of Hariri, while Riyadh’s regional foe Iran backs Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah.

A month after his resignatoin, after French mediation and the Saudis denying they had intimidating him into quitting, Hariri rescinded his resignation.

He was named premier for a third term in May after Lebanon’s first parliamentary elections in nine years, but has since struggled to form a cabinet.

Hariri, a dual Saudi citizen, has supported the Crown Prince and the Saudi leader’s stance on Khashoggi, who was brutally murdered inside the kingdom’s consulate in Instanbul on October 2.

“The measures taken by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia regarding the case of journalist Jamal Khashoggi … come within the framework that serves the path of justice and the disclosure of the whole truth,” a statement from Hariri’s office quoted him as saying.

During the conference the Crown Prince vowed to bring the killers of Khashoggi to justice, describing the case as “painful, horrible and unjustified” in his first public speech since the start of the crisis.

“Saudi Arabia is taking all legal measures … and working with the Turkish government to reach results and bring all the criminals to justice,” the 33-year-old said.

“Justice will prevail.”

Prince Mohammed said some people were trying to make use of Khashoggi’s case to “drive a wedge between Saudi Arabia and Turkey.”

IRAN SLAMS US OVER KHASHOGGI
The journalist’s “heinous murder” would have been unthinkable “without US backing,” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday.

“I don’t think that any country would dare do such a thing without US backing,” Mr Rouhani said in remarks to cabinet broadcast on state television.

Mr Rouhani said that before Khashoggi’s murder “it would have been unthinkable that in this day and age we would witness such an organised felony.

“It is extremely significant that an institution planned such a heinous murder. The tribal group that is ruling that nation (Saudi Arabia) has a security margin. That security margin is that it relies on US backing. It is this superpower that is backing them.”

Khashoggi, a government critic who was living in self-imposed exile in the United States, was murdered as he organised the paperwork for his marriage to his Turkish fiancee.

US President Donald Trump has ridiculed Riyadh’s response as “one of the worst cover-ups” in history.

Iran had been silent about the Khashoggi case until Monday when its judiciary chief slammed Saudi Arabia over his death.

“This heinous murder further revealed the nature of Saudis, their kingdom and that young man who is seeking fame and murdering innocent people,” Sadegh Amoli Larijani was quoted as saying by the judiciary’s news agency Mizan Online, apparently referring to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.

Mr Trump has said Khashoggi’s death was a botched operation and a “bad original concept”.

His administration has taken its first steps in punishing the Saudis by deciding to revoke the visas of the suspects.

Mr Trump will get a briefing tomorrow from CIA Director Gina Haspel, who has been in Turkey.

“They had a very bad original concept,” Mr Trump said. “It was carried out poorly, and the cover-up was one of the worst cover-ups in the history of cover-ups. Somebody really messed up, and they had the worst cover-up ever.”

Mr Trump has resisted calls to cut off arms sales to the kingdom and has been reluctant to antagonise the Saudi rulers.

Mr Trump considers the Saudis vital allies in his Mideast agenda.

Members of Congress have demanded that sanctions be imposed on Saudi Arabia over the killing of Khashoggi.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said earlier on Wednesday that his country would not allow those responsible for the killing of Khashoggi to evade justice, maintaining pressure on the Saudi elite amid rising global criticism of Riyadh.

The Saudi leadership remains under immense international pressure over the murder of Khashoggi, with strong reactions from the EU and Australia on Wednesday.

Also on Wednesday, Erdogan and the Saudi crown prince had a telephone conversation about “joint efforts” to shed light on the killing of Khashoggi, according to Turkish state news agency Anadolu, marking the first contact between the Turkish and Saudi leaders since the start of the case.

Australia could follow Germany’s lead and suspend new arms sales to Saudi Arabia in response to the crime, Defence Minister Christopher Pyne said in Canberra.

France said it would apply sanctions against Saudi Arabia if the kingdom was clearly found responsible for the killing.

Iranian President Hassan Rowhani called on the United States and the European Union not to back down from putting pressure on Saudi Arabia — an arch-enemy of Iran.

Saudi authorities on Wednesday gave Turkish investigators the green light to search a well on the grounds of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkish state media reported.

Police had previously been denied access to the well on two separate occasions, Turkish state news agency Anadolu said, but various pro-government media outlets reported that the authorisation to search it was given on Wednesday.