Saudi murder of Khashoggi 'unthinkable without US protection', says Iran

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

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 Saudi insider-turned-critic and Washington Post writer who was in self-imposed exile in the US, was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October as he organised the paperwork for his marriage to his Turkish fiancee.

After more than two weeks of vehemently denying Khashoggi was dead and insisting Khashoggi left the consulate unharmed, the Saudi government on Saturday said he was killed in a "fist fight" inside the building and that the murder was not state-sanctioned.

Turkish media sources have long maintained that a team of 15 Saudi agents were sent to Istanbul and tortured Khashoggi, cut his fingers off and decapitated him with a bone saw brought from Saudi Arabia for that purpose. 

The case has triggered an international outcry against Saudi Arabia. US President Donald Trump on Tuesday ridiculed ally Riyadh's response as "one of the worst cover-ups" in history.

Until Monday, Iran had been silent about the Khashoggi murder.

"This heinous murder further revealed the nature of Saudis, their kingdom and that young man who is seeking fame and murdering innocent people," said Sadegh Amoli Larijani, Iran's judiciary chief, apparently referring to Crown Prince and de facto leader Mohammad bin Salman.

Iran has closely followed the backlash its regional rival Saudi Arabia has faced over the Khashoggi murder.

In 2017, Iran executed more people than any other country except for China. Iran is home to 80 million to China's 1.4 billion. 

Tehran has for years come under fire by rights groups for executions, including minors, and a whole host of violations. It also routinely arrests journalists and dissidents, with press freedom group RSF criticising it as "one of the most oppressive countries" for media organisations.

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