Trump discussed Khashoggi response with Turkey's Erdogan - White House official

By Steve Holland

 

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan arrives to attend a visit and a dinner at the Orsay Museum on the eve of the commemoration ceremony for Armistice Day, 100 years after the end of the First World War, in Paris, France, November 10, 2018. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

 

PARIS (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and his Turkish counterpart, Tayyip Erdogan, discussed how to respond to the killing last month of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a White House official said on Sunday.

 

The conversation took place during a Saturday dinner with heads of state and government gathered in Paris to mark the World War One Armistice centenary.

 

Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was killed at the kingdom's Istanbul consulate by a team sent from Riyadh. Saudi authorities have acknowledged that the killing was premeditated, but his body has not been found.

 

Erdogan disclosed on Saturday that audio recordings of the killing had been given to the U.S., French, German and British governments, adding that the operation had been ordered at the "highest levels" of the Saudi government.

 

Trump expects to form a "stronger opinion" by this coming week on Khashoggi's killing and Washington's response, he said last Wednesday - adding that he was working with Congress, Turkey and Saudi Arabia to establish who bore responsibility.

 

In a phone call with the crown prince on Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo "emphasized that the United States will hold all of those involved in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi accountable, and that Saudi Arabia must do the same," the State Department said in a statement.

 

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Aadditional reporting by Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Writing by Laurence Frost; Editing by Richard Lough and Peter Cooney)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-11-12

Erdogan, thanking his lucky stars that the Khashoggi murder has shifted attention from his thuggish leadership.