Saudi Arabia will allow Turkey to seek a consulate in Khashoggi

ISTANBUL – The Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that the authorities were going to search the Saudi consulate in Istanbul as part of an investigation into the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last week.

A Turkish spokesman, Hami Aksoy, said the Saudi authorities were "open to cooperation" and had declared their willingness to cooperate and would allow a review of the reasons for the consulate. It was not known when the search would take place.

Khashoggi, a Saudi writer and critic at the head of the kingdom, was last seen entering the consulate of Levent district in Istanbul on October 2 when he arrived to retrieve an administrative document. The Washington Post on Monday released a photo of a closed-circuit television channel that a person close to the investigation reportedly unveiled in the final seconds of Khashoggi, as he headed for the door of the consulate.

Turkish investigators believe that Khashoggi, 59, was killed soon after entering the country and that his body was later removed from his premises, said a US official and sources close to the investigation. Saudi officials have called the accusations "unfounded".

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday urged Saudi Arabia to prove that journalist Khashoggi had left the consulate on his own, as Saudi officials repeatedly claimed after his disappearance the week last while he was inside the mission.

Erdogan's comments were his most direct suggestion to date regarding the possible guilt of Saudi Arabia in the disappearance of Khashoggi.

"Do not you have cameras and all kind?" Erdogan said about consular officials at a press conference in Budapest, the Hungarian capital. "They have them all. So why not prove it? You must prove it. "

The Turkish Foreign Ministry has also summoned the Saudi ambassador to ask him to "cooperate fully" in the investigation into the disappearance of Khashoggi, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Monday.

Turkish officials said they believe that 59-year-old Khashoggi, who is critical of Saudi leaders and a contributor to the Washington Post's Global Opinions section, was killed by a team of 15 Saudis who came specifically to carry out the attack.

In his first remarks on the disappearance, President Trump told reporters Monday afternoon that he was worried. "I do not like hearing about it. Hope this will work out. Right now nobody knows anything about it, but there are some very bad stories going around. I do not like that, "Trump said.

State Secretary Mike Pompeo, in his own statement, said that "we have seen conflicting information about the security and displacement" of Khashoggi. Repeating Trump's expression of concern, Pompeo, who had just returned from a trip to Asia, called on the Saudi government to "support a thorough investigation into the disappearance of Mr. Khashoggi and to do so." evidence of transparency as to the results of this investigation ".

[Missing journalist’s fiancee demands to know: ‘Where is Jamal?’]

Members of Congress, where bipartisan skepticism about Saudi Arabia has long existed, have issued statements and tweets demanding responses from Riyadh. Senator Lindsey O. Graham (RS.C.) said in a series of tweets on Monday: "It is true that allegations of wrongdoing by the Saudi government would be devastating for US-Canada relations. Saudi and that there would be heavy price to pay – economically and otherwise. "

Graham, who played golf Sunday with Trump during the President's in Sterling, Va., Said he consulted Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) And Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.) Of the Commission's External Relations Committee. Senate "Joint Concerns about Fate and Treatment" of Khashoggi.

In a statement sent to reporters on Monday, Prince Khalid bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington, said reports that the kingdom would have arrested or killed Khashoggi were "absolutely false and unfounded." . . I do not know who is behind these claims, nor their intentions, "he said," I do not really care. "

"What interests us is Jamal's well-being and the revelation of the truth about what happened," said the ambassador. "Jamal has a lot of friends in the Kingdom, including mine, and despite our differences, and his choice to embark on his so-called" self-exile, "we have always maintained regular contact when we are not in trouble. he was in Washington. "

The Saudi government, he said, is cooperating "fully" with the Turkish government's investigation. "Jamal is a Saudi citizen whose security is a top priority for the Kingdom."

In a meeting with Fred Ryan, publisher of The Post on Sunday night, the ambassador said it was "impossible" to cover such a crime by employees of the consulate "and we would not know it."

Khalid told Ryan that Khashoggi, who was once close to the ruling family in Saudi Arabia, had "always been honest" and that his criticisms of the current Saudi leaders "were sincere".

During the meeting, Ryan expressed The Post's "grave concern" about Khashoggi's disappearance, and said the news organization would consider any Saudi government involvement in his disappearance as a blatant attack on one of his reporters. .

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Erdogan asks the Saudis to prove that a missing journalist has left his consulate alive

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