Washington: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had made clear in talks in Ankara that Saudi officials were cooperating with Turkey’s investigation into missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“He made clear that the Saudis had cooperated with the investigation that the Turks are engaged in and that they’re going to share information that they learn with the Saudis as well,” Pompeo told reporters aboard his plane after they left Turkey for Washington.
“…they seemed pretty confident that the Saudis would permit them to do the things they need to do to complete their thorough and complete investigation,” he said.
Earlier Pompeo expressed confidence that the Saudi government could be trusted to investigate the case.
Speaking in Ankara, Pompeo offered that support hours after President Donald Trump had mounted a strong defence for the Saudi authorities, saying, “Here we go again with you’re guilty until proven innocent.”
The dissident journalist, who lived in Virginia, vanished on October 2 after he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
Pompeo wrapped up two days of emergency talks in the region — first with Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman in Riyadh, and then with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara.
Turkish police on Wednesday began a search at the residence of the Saudi consul to Istanbul, according to media reports.
A team of a dozen police and prosecutors, including forensics experts in white overalls, entered the residence of Mohammad Al Otaibi, a day after he flew out of Istanbul for Riyadh.
Earlier in the day, a Saudi delegation had also arrived at the building to take part in the joint search with their Turkish counterparts.
Turkish police had on Monday searched the consulate building itself for over eight hours, taking away soil and DNA samples for further examination.
— Agencies
