US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Meets Saudi King Salman Over Jamal Khashoggi’s Disappearance

Pompeo will next visit Turkey on Wednesday, where a Turkish-Saudi investigation is underway, stated the officials of the US State Department.

Updated: October 16, 2018 7:23 PM IST

By India.com News Desk | Edited by Kanimozhi Sudhakar

Mike Pompeo
Mike Pompeo. (File Photo)

Riyadh: As the crisis over missing Journalist Jamal Khashoggi deepened, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo went to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to discuss the issue with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. After speaking with King Salman over the phone on Monday, US President Donald Trump had sent Pompeo to hold talks with Saudi Arabia’s leadership.

Pompeo visited Saudi Arabia in the wake of the mounting diplomatic pressure on Riyadh for a fuller explanation in the case, reported CNN. As per reports, the journalist is believed to have been murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Upon reaching Riyadh in the morning, Pompeo received greetings from Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir and Saudi Ambassador to the US, Prince Khalid Bin Salman. Pompeo will next visit Turkey on Wednesday, where a Turkish-Saudi investigation is underway, stated the officials of the US State Department.

An international inquiry was called forth by the family members of Jamal Khashoggi to investigate his disappearance. The probe widened with the Turkish police searching the diplomatic building in Istanbul. On Tuesday, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, reportedly stated that the police officers who first entered the Saudi consulate on Monday had discovered that some surfaces had been painted over again. A Guardian report quoted Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as saying, “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.”

Washington Post columnist and a prominent critic of the Saudi crown prince, visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, on October 2. He had gone there to get all the paperwork necessary for his planned marriage. And since then the journalist has been reported as missing. While Turkish intelligence officials claim that there are audio and visual evidence to prove Khashoggi’s murder inside the consulate, the Saudi authorities maintain that Khashoggi left the building in the afternoon on the same day.

(With Agency inputs)

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