Pompeo meets Erdogan after talks with Saudis on missing journalist

By Tulay Karadeniz and Leah Millis

 

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan meets with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at Esenboga International Airport in Ankara, Turkey November 17, 2018. Murat Cetinmuhurdar/Presidential Press Office/Handout via REUTERS

 

ANKARA (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Wednesday following talks with Saudi Arabia's king and crown prince about the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump, who dispatched his top diplomat to address the crisis, has given Saudi Arabia the benefit of the doubt in Khashoggi's disappearance, even as U.S. lawmakers pointed the finger at the Saudi leadership, and Western pressure mounted on Riyadh to provide answers.

 

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said Pompeo would bring information about the case to Ankara, two weeks after Khashoggi vanished when he visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to collect documents for his planned marriage.

 

Turkish officials have said they believe Khashoggi - a prominent critic of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - was murdered and his body removed. Turkish sources have told Reuters the authorities have an audio recording indicating that Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate.

 

The Saudis have strongly denied the accusations, but U.S. media outlets have reported that they will acknowledge Khashoggi was killed in a botched interrogation. Trump has speculated that "rogue killers" could be responsible, but gave no evidence to back up that theory.

 

After meeting with King Salman and the crown prince on Tuesday, Pompeo told reporters that Saudi Arabia has committed to conducting a complete investigation into Khashoggi's disappearance.

 

How the crown prince, often referred to as MbS, emerges from the Khashoggi disappearance is a test of how the West will deal with Saudi Arabia in the future. At issue will be to what extent the West believes responsibility for Khashoggi lies with the powerful young ruler.

 

"In each of those meetings I stressed the importance of them conducting a complete investigation into the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi. They made a commitment to do that," he told reporters travelling with him after boarding the plane for Ankara.

 

"They said it would be a thorough, complete and transparent investigation," he said. "They indicated they understood that getting that done in a timely, rapid fashion so they could begin to answer important questions."

 

MOUNTING CRITICISM

Asked whether they said Khashoggi was alive or dead, Pompeo said: "They didn't talk about any of the facts."

 

Earlier, Trump tweeted that Prince Mohammed had denied knowing what happened in the Saudi consulate.

 

"I think we have to find out what happened first," Trump told the Associated Press in an interview on Tuesday. "Here we go again with, you know, you're guilty until proven innocent. I don't like that."

 

MbS, who has enjoyed a close relationship with the Trump administration, has painted himself as the face of a new, vibrant Saudi Arabia, diversifying its economy away from reliance on oil and making some social changes.

 

But there has been mounting criticism of some of the prince's moves, including Riyadh's involvement in the Yemen war, the arrest of women activists, and a diplomatic row with Canada.

 

Members of the U.S. Congress, including some of Trump's fellow Republicans, are among the loudest voices in the United States demanding answers and action on Khashoggi, a U.S. resident and Washington Post columnist who moved to Washington last year fearing retribution for his critical views.

 

Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican close to Trump, has called Prince Mohammed "a wrecking ball" and accused him of ordering Khashoggi's murder.

 

Despite Western concerns about Saudi Arabia's human rights record, Trump still says he is unwilling to pull out of weapons sales agreements with Riyadh.

 

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin plans to attend a high-profile investment conference in Riyadh next week known as "Davos in the desert", even as IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde joined a growing list of high-profile executives who have pulled out.

 

The Saudi event is unrelated to the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

 

Saudi Arabia has said it would retaliate against any pressure or economic sanctions.

 

(Additional reporting by Makini Brice and Lesley Wroughton; Writing by Daren Butler and Stephen Kalin; Editing by Jon Boyle)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-10-17

This is about x billion dollars and security in the middle east and oil prices.

 

I am sure they will find an explanation why things are not what they seemed to be.

Probably he fell when he came in the embassy because the floor was cleaned. And he fell right into the shredder - what a mess!

And obviously everybody was embarrassed about this.

Now they cleaned everything up and obviously they fired that incompetent cleaner.

 

Sorry, accidents happen, now lets get back to business as usual.

Erdog has plenty of knowledge about how to make things and people disappear without any help????

10 hours ago, webfact said:

Trump has speculated that "rogue killers" could be responsible, but gave no evidence to back up that theory.

 

That’s because he made it up. 

Yes, need to coordinate the story. If I was cynical I would expect the result of the "investigation" to be revealed just before the midterms.

Probably have to fork over Fethullah Gülen.

 

 

 

I’m thinking Donald will do one of his distractions to change the news cycle to cover his buddy

Facts could be, CIA approved listening devices in the embassy, and yes

pay back sometime in the future. Err Jetliners do sometimes crash. Shhhh!

Geezer

1 hour ago, Stargrazer9889 said:

Facts could be, CIA approved listening devices in the embassy, and yes pay back sometime in the future. Err Jetliners do sometimes crash. Shhhh!

Geezer

I suspect the Turks were the most likely to have bugged it.   That may be why the story has been slow to get out.   They had to come up with a cover story for how the information was obtained.

 

If it were the CIA, I think it would have gotten buried, which is more than can be said for the victim.

  

3 hours ago, mtls2005 said:

Probably have to fork over Fethullah Gülen.

 

 

 

No wonder trump likes him

Obviously I don't know what happened but the Turkish narrative is a lot easier to believe than the ever changing Saudi story.

 

Yesterday a short part of the audio clip was released by the Turkish government. Kashoggi was dismembered while still alive.....the eminent and lauded forensic doctor who cut him up put on headphones to listen to music while he did his gruesome job....and advised others in the room to do the same. Why did he happen to have a bone saw with him if it was not a pre-meditated murder? Does he carry it around in case he just happens to have a difficult piece of goat to cut up at dinner? Why do 15 people fly in on private planes with 4 identified as part of MbS's security detail? The Saudis said they were tourists but they arrived at 3:15 am and left that afternoon....a short vacation one might say. 

Why is Trump covering up? 

Why is it that why a spy gets poisoned they know Russia did it immediately before any investigation in the absence of any evidence? Why, when Assad inexplicably uses chemical weapons when he is winning the war, do the Americans know that Assad did it before any investigation?

No the Saudis are a special case....they blew up the World Trade centres on 9/11 and the US did nothing except put their tongue deeper into the Saudis' bottoms.