Pompeo in talks over Khashoggi

Turkish police search Saudi consulate in Istanbul where journalist vanished

RIYADH - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Riyadh on Tuesday, in an attempt to find out what happened to Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as US President Donald Trump said "rogue killers" could be to blame for the disappearance and alleged slaying of the writer.

Turkish police on Monday searched the Saudi consulate in Istanbul for the first time since Khashoggi, a Saudi national and US resident who became increasingly critical of the Saudi government, went missing.

He has not been seen since he walked into the Istanbul consulate to sort out marriage paperwork on Oct 2.

Turkish officials have said they believe he was killed - a claim Saudi Arabia has denied.

But US media reported on Monday that the kingdom is considering an admission that Khashoggi died after an interrogation that went wrong during an intended abduction.

Trump dispatched Pompeo for what the State Department described as "face to face meetings with the Saudi leadership".

Pompeo landed in Riyadh on Tuesday morning and immediately met Saudi King Salman over the crisis surrounding Khashoggi.

After talks with king, Pompeo met Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir and was scheduled to have dinner with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The team of around 10 Turkish police investigators, which arrived in a motorcade of six cars late on Monday, left the premises in the early hours of Tuesday after an eight-hour search, a witness said.

They took samples with them, including soil from the consulate garden that was loaded into vans, one official at the scene said. A police dog was also part of the search team.

A Saudi delegation had entered the consulate one hour before the Turkish police arrived and appeared still to be inside as the search was conducted.

Trump's comments came after a telephone conversation with King Salman, the first such talks since the crisis erupted.

"Just spoke to the King of Saudi Arabia who denies any knowledge of whatever may have happened 'to our Saudi Arabian citizen'," Trump said on Twitter.

'No knowledge'

Riyadh's most recent comments have focused on having no knowledge of any killing or denying any order to kill Khashoggi had been given.

"The denial was very, very strong," Trump later told reporters at the White House. "It sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers. Who knows?"

He gave no evidence to support the theory. Democratic lawmakers criticized Trump for using the term "rogue killers".

After critical talks in Riyadh on Tuesday, Pompeo was expected in Turkey on Wednesday to meet Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Anadolu news agency said.

The search came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and King Salman also had their first telephone talks since the controversy erupted, in what appeared to be a conciliatory conversation, according to official readouts.

While lurid claims have appeared in Turkish media - including that Khashoggi was tortured and dismembered - Turkey's leadership has so far refrained from pointing the finger directly at Riyadh in public comments.

King Salman emphasized the importance of the Turkey-Saudi relationship and said no one should be able to "undermine the strength of this relationship", Saudi media reported.

The case has provoked an international outcry against Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, with more media and business executives pulling out of a planned investment conference there this month.

While organizers said on Monday that the conference will go on, the Saudis canceled an annual diplomatic reception in Washington set for later this week.

Afp - Reuters - Ap

(China Daily 10/17/2018 page12)