Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to fly to Saudi Arabia on Thursday, mending a rift between the Suni powers caused by the murder of Riyadh critic Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate in 2018. The two-day trip comes on the heels of an Istanbul court’s decision to halt the trial in absentia of 26 Saudi suspects linked to the gruesome killing, transferring the case to Saudi Arabia. The Turkish decision infuriated human rights campaigners and Khashoggi’s widow Hatice Cengiz, who tried to appeal it in a higher court. But it opened the way for Erdogan to go ahead with the Saudi visit, which had been discussed for months. “We don’t have a negative attitude towards Saudi Arabia in terms of normalising relations, either commercially, economically, or politically,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told state television last month. A Turkish official told AFP that Erdogan was not expected to make any formal announcement during his trip to Riyadh, which is expected to stretch into Friday but will be closed to the press. Erdogan is due to meet Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, said the official, adding that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will likely be in the delegation attending the talks.