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Some members of Congress say that the United States must act against Saudi Arabia if the country's leaders are responsible for the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but they diverge as to the exact nature of this action. (October 17)
AP
Turkish judicial police officers leave after searching for evidence of Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 18 October.(Photo: AFP)
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that he had told President Donald Trump on Thursday that the United States should give Saudi Arabia "a few more days" to investigate the fate of Jamal Khashoggi – a decision that gives the royal family extra leeway – to defend allegations that Riyadh played a role in the alleged disappearance and assassination of the Saudi journalist.
"We made it clear to them that we were taking this case very seriously," Pompeo told reporters after meeting with Trump to inform him of his two-day trip to Saudi Arabia and Turkey, looking for Answers regarding the disappearance of Khashoggi. "They assured me that they would conduct a thorough and thorough investigation."
Pompeo took only two questions and did not specify when he believed that Khashoggi was dead.
"There are a lot of stories about what happened," said Pompeo. "We will simply allow the process to move forward, to allow the facts to unfold."
It has been more than two weeks since Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi dissident who obtained US residency last year for security reasons, disappeared shortly after his visit to the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul. According to Turkish officials, horrible audio and video recordings, described in the Turkish media in recent days, reveal Khashoggi was beheaded and dismembered a few minutes after entering the compound.
Pompeo went to Saudi and Turkish capitals to seek answers to a case that put pressure on the Trump administration for its apparent skepticism of Turkish claims. Trump said Wednesday in the Oval Office that the United States had asked Ankara for copies of any audio or video evidence of Khashoggi's assassination, "if it exists."
Trump added, "I'm not sure if it exists, it probably exists, I'll have a full report on it (when Pompeo returns)." This will be the first question I ask. "
The president has also disputed the allegations that he "would cover" Saudi Arabia, an American ally with whom Washington cooperates in the fields of oil, counter-terrorism, arms sales and acts as a bulwark. to the US regional enemy, Iran. "I want to know what happened, where is the fault, and we will probably know that by the end of the week … Mike Pompeo will come back, we are going to have a long discussion," said Trump.
In the midst of the diplomatic crisis, Saudi Arabia has transferred $ 100 million to the state department – a long-promised contribution to help stabilize parts of Syria liberated from the Islamic state. The moment of the donation, announced for the first time by the New York Times, made eyebrows.
It was just the moment Pompeo landed in Riyadh to meet Saudi officials in the Khashoggi case. Pompeo and Trump seemed reluctant to take a stance with the Saudi royal family after the alleged murder of Khashoggi.
But a senior state department official involved in securing funds said that there was no link.
"We were still expecting the contribution to be finalized in the fall," said Dan McGurk, the president's special envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. "The specific transfer of funds has been going on for a long time and has nothing to do with any other events or with the secretary's visit."
Initially, the Saudis had announced a $ 100 contribution in August, and McGurk was in Riyadh on Friday to work toward finalizing the transfer.
Trump had already raised the idea that Khashoggi could have been killed by "dishonest killers" and, in his telephone conversations with Saudi King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, showed himself willing to accept the denial that they would know about the consulate or who could have ordered the killing of Khashoggi.
At the same time, Saudi Arabia has described the "alarming allegations" as completely "baseless". Yet, the Saudi authorities have not produced any evidence proving that Khashoggi had left the diplomatic enclosure in Istanbul on October 2, while an increasing number of indirect evidence has become increasingly difficult to dismiss. .
The pro-government Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak claimed on Wednesday that the 60-year-old journalist who had written for the Washington Post had been approached by a team of Saudi agents immediately after entering the consulate, cutting off his fingers and then the beheading. Sabah, a separate Turkish newspaper closely linked to the government, released Thursday video surveillance footage showing a man who traveled with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia during a visit to the United States in March, traveling at the consulate of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul shortly before the disappearance of Khashoggi.
"If a country engages in an illegal activity, it is unacceptable.Nobody will defend such an activity.They simply have to say what happened," said Pompeo in Turkey after being met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Pompeo refused to say he had heard or seen evidence that Turkish security agents claim to own.
Returning home from Turkey on Wednesday in Washington, Pompeo acknowledged the calls for ever-increasing answers: "sooner than ever, better for everyone".
Turkish investigators raided the home of the consul general of Saudi Arabia and the consulate where Khashoggi was allegedly killed, but revealed relatively little about what they discovered there. The consul left Turkey earlier this week.
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In the absence of written evidence from Turkey, it would have greater access to evidence, and in the absence of rebuttal evidence by Saudi Arabia, the control of the Crown Prince and the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia. He has imprisoned hundreds of journalists, activists, officials and even members of his own royal family to cancel the dissent. He was also previously accused of attempting to attract other Saudi dissidents living in the United States, including Ali Al-Ahmed, to his home. "I have not been to an embassy or consulate in Saudi Arabia for years," said Al-Ahmed in the United States today in an interview.
On Thursday, the Washington Post published Khashoggi's latest column, written shortly before his death and sent to the newspaper a day after his disappearance by his translator. The column entitled "What the Arab world needs most is freedom of expression", emphasizes the need for a free press in the Middle East.
Khashoggi also deplores the fact that many Arabs live, according to him, in a state of misinformation. Perhaps strangely prescient, he explains that the international community has not taken the issue of press freedom seriously and that, as a result, journalists have been silenced. "These actions no longer have the consequences of a violent reaction on the part of the international community," writes Khashoggi.
"Instead, these actions can trigger a conviction quickly followed by silence, so the Arab governments have been free to continue to silence the media."
More: Can US-Saudi relations survive the alleged murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi?
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More: "Do this out": insidious new claims about how Jamal Khashoggi, in Saudi Arabia, presumed death
Contribute: Christal Hayes
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