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Erin Cunningham
Middle East reporter covering Iran, Turkey, Syria and the wider region
John Wagner
National reporter leading The Post’s breaking political news team
ISTANBUL — President Trump said Thursday it appears that Jamal Khashoggi is dead and warned that his administration could consider “very severe” measures against Saudi Arabia, sharply raising pressures on the kingdom as it prepares its own accounting of the journalist’s disappearance.
Trump’s remarks reflect apparent shifting strategies and views in the White House over its response and possible punishments toward one of its key Middle East allies.
As he boarded a flight to Montana for a political rally, Trump was asked by a journalist if he believed Khashoggi was dead.
“It certainly looks that way to me,” he said. “It’s very sad.”
He added that Saudi Arabia could face a “very severe” U.S. response depending on the results of the self-run investigation by the kingdom into the disappearance of Khashoggi, a Saudi citizen and Washington Post contributing columnist.
“I mean, it’s bad, bad stuff. But we’ll see what happens,” Trump said.
Trump said the White House expected to have a Saudi account of the Khashoggi case “very soon.”
“And I think we’ll be making a statement, a very strong statement,” he added. “But, we’re waiting for the results of about three different investigations, and we should be able to get to the bottom fairly soon.”
The comments could reflect a harder line by the White House amid the international outcry over Khashoggi, who was last seen publicly entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. In the past week, Trump left open the idea that “rogue killers” carried out a possible attack on Khashoggi, and also warned against a rush to judgment against Riyadh’s rulers.
Earlier Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the White House to allow “a few more days” for Saudi Arabia to issue its own findings in the disappearance of Khashoggi, even as Turkish police sharply expanded their investigation.
Turkish authorities said they will now search at least two rural areas outside Istanbul, local news agencies and a Turkish official said.
Trump has said any U.S. response to Khashoggi’s disappearance must take into account the security and defense ties the United States has with the kingdom.
But in the administration’s first formal rebuke of Saudi Arabia over the Khashoggi case, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday that he would join many other political leaders and business executives canceling their participation in a major investment forum in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, next week.
Mnuchin made the announcement after consulting with Trump and Pompeo. Hours earlier, finance chiefs from France, Britain and the Netherlands announced their snubs of the Riyadh conference.
[Mnuchin joins international snub of Saudi investor conference]
Pompeo — who held talks this week in Riyadh and the Turkish capital, Ankara — said he told Trump to give Saudi Arabia a little more time to complete its investigation into the disappearance of Khashoggi.
Referring to the separate Turkish investigation, Pompeo said, “We do believe that between these two efforts, a complete picture will emerge for what actually transpired here.” That, he said, would inform “how or if the United States should respond to the incident.”
It is uncertain, however, if a self-run inquest or conclusions by the Saudis could quell international furor over the disappearance of Khashoggi. He was last seen Oct. 2 after entering the Saudi Consulate.
Saudi leaders deny having any knowledge of Khashoggi’s fate.
Asked why the Saudis should be trusted to conduct a fair investigation, Pompeo said that U.S. officials would evaluate the Saudi report on whether “it’s truly accurate, fair and transparent” as promised during Pompeo’s talks in Riyadh.
In Turkey, meanwhile, police exploring the disappearance of 59-year-old Khashoggi — who they believe was killed by a team of agents from Saudi Arabia inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul — are reviewing security footage from the entrances to Istanbul’s Belgrad Forest, roughly 10 miles north of the city center, Turkish media reported.
[Secret recordings give insight into Saudi attempts to silence critics]
They also expect to search farmland in Turkey’s Yalova province, which is about 60 miles from Istanbul.
A Turkish official confirmed that investigators had broadened their search for Khashoggi’s body to “gardens” around the Istanbul area. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss details of the case.
Up until now, the inquiry has focused on the consulate in Istanbul’s Levent district and the nearby residence of the Saudi consul general, Mohammed al-Otaibi, who left Turkey this week.
Still, leaks from Turkish officials to foreign and local media outlets have kept the spotlight on Khashoggi.
Turkey’s pro-government Sabah newspaper published Thursday what it said were images from a closed-circuit television of Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb — an apparent member of the Saudi security services who may have previously traveled with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — outside the consulate on the day Khashoggi went missing. Other images show Mutreb checking out of an Istanbul hotel and at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport hours after Khashoggi was last seen in public.
Mutreb also appears to have been photographed with the crown prince on trips to France, Spain and the United States. A British document from 2007 lists a man by the same name working as a diplomat in London.
[Amid global outrage over Khashoggi, Trump takes softer path]
“There a lot of stories out there about what has happened,” Pompeo said. “We just are going to allow the process to move forward, allow the facts to unfold, and as they unfold, as we make a determination for ourselves about what happened there based on the facts that are presented to us, then the United States will determine what the appropriate response might be.”
Echoing Trump from recent days, Pompeo also said U.S. leaders should be “mindful” of the United States’ “long strategic relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.” He called the kingdom an “important counterterrorism partner.”
Turkish investigators have said they believe that Khashoggi was killed by a 15-man Saudi hit team soon after he entered the consulate on an administrative errand on Oct. 2 and was subsequently dismembered.
As early as a week after Khashoggi was last seen in public, Turkish authorities were already investigating the idea that the Saudi team drove around Istanbul looking for parks and open areas to possibly dispose of the body, a Turkish security official said last week.
On Thursday, investigators left the consulate after a second search of the consulate grounds, Turkey’s private DHA news agency reported. Turkey has not formally released any evidence to support claims that a team of Saudi agents killed Khashoggi.
Trump on Wednesday urged the Turkish government to share what it says is an audio recording of Khashoggi’s killing.
“We have asked for if it exists,” Trump told reporters hours after Pompeo left Turkey.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Pompeo did not listen to any audio recording while in Ankara. It was unclear whether Turkey offered Pompeo a chance to listen to the recording that Turkish officials say they have.
In Russia, President Vladimir Putin used the Khashoggi case to take a swipe at the Trump administration’s cautious approach.
At a foreign policy conference in the Black Sea resort Sochi, Putin said that while the West was quick to punish Moscow after the poisoning of a former Russian spy in England in March — in which the Kremlin denies any role — things look very different in the aftermath of the apparent murder of Khashoggi.
“There’s no proof in regards to Russia, but steps are taken,” Putin said. “Here, people say that a murder happened in Istanbul, but no steps are taken. A single approach needs to be figured out to these kinds of problems.”
Read more:
Crown prince under scrutiny in journalist’s disappearance even as Saudis search for exculpatory explanation
Saudi Arabia transfers $100 million to U.S. amid crisis over Khashoggi
Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world
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