US secretary of state meets Saudi king for crisis talks
Pompeo landed in Riyadh on Tuesday morning and met the king immediately to discuss the crisis surrounding Khashoggi, who vanished two weeks ago during a visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The US’s top diplomat “reiterated US concern over Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance”, according to State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert.
He later met the county’s powerful crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and is on Wednesday due to visit Istanbul, where a joint Turkish-Saudi investigation is under way.
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| Mike Pompeo thanked the king ‘for accepting my visit on behalf of President Trump’ before going into a closed-door meeting. Photograph: Bandar Algaloud Handout/EPA |
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on Tuesday said police who entered the consulate for the first time on Monday had found some surfaces had been painted over. “My hope is that we can reach conclusions that will give us a reasonable opinion as soon as possible, because the investigation is looking into many things such as toxic materials and those materials being removed by painting them over,” he told reporters.
Khashoggi, a prominent critic of the crown prince, relocated from Saudi Arabia to the US last year, where he wrote for the Washington Post. He visited the Saudi consulate building in Istanbul on 2 October for an appointment to pick up documents for his forthcoming marriage and has not been seen since.
Turkish officials allege they have video and audio evidence that proves Khashoggi was interrogated and murdered by a 15-man hit squad sent from Riyadh – claims Saudi Arabia continues to deny, although it has offered no alternative version of events.
US media outlets reported late on Monday that Saudi Arabia was considering making a statement admitting that Khashoggi died inside the consulate building as the result of a botched rendition.
Any such admission would be issued only after a deal was reached with Turkey on how the criminal investigation should proceed, the Washington Post reported, citing two US diplomatic sources.
Last week, the US president threatened “severe punishment” if it emerged that Khashoggi had been murdered. However, on Monday he said, without offering evidence, that Khashoggi could have been murdered by “rogue killers”, prompting speculation that the White House may be willing to protect the House of Saud, a key political and trade ally, from blame for the diplomatic crisis.
Turkish investigators were allowed access to the diplomatic building for the first time on Monday afternoon. Technicians in overalls, gloves and covered shoes emerged nine hours later.
Ankara has wanted to search the consulate for days, but under the Vienna convention, diplomatic posts are technically foreign soil that must be protected and respected by host countries.
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| Mike Pompeo meets Saudi Arabia’s King Salman in Riyadh. Photograph: Leah Mills/A |
Before the Turkish team arrived, cleaners with disinfectant, mops and buckets were seen entering the building’s main door.
Although it was not immediately clear what evidence could be extracted two weeks after Khashoggi’s disappearance, al-Jazeera reported that a source in the Turkish attorney general’s office said the search team found sufficient evidence to “support the belief” the missing writer was killed.
Police plan to conduct a second search, of the Saudi consul’s home in Istanbul, on Tuesday.
Khashoggi wrote extensively for the Washington Post about Saudi Arabia, criticising its war in Yemen, the recent diplomatic spat with Canada and its arrest of women’s rights activists after the lifting of a driving ban for women. Those policies are all seen as initiatives of Bin Salman, who is next in line to the throne.
Khashoggi’s family, who said they have been left to “sadly and anxiously follow the conflicting news”, on Monday called for an independent investigation into his disappearance.
“The strong moral and legal responsibility which our father instilled in us obliges us to call for the establishment of an independent and impartial international commission to inquire into the circumstances of his death,” the statement read.
The call was echoed on Tuesday by the UN high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, who urged Ankara and Riyadh to waive diplomatic immunity in the case and “reveal everything they know about the disappearance and possible extrajudicial killing” of Khashoggi.
