DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lands in Saudi Arabia on a trip over disappearance of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi. </s> Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud meets with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, October 16, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis/Pool

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday expressed concern about the disappearance of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi during a meeting in Riyadh with the country’s foreign minister and thanked Saudi King Salman for his commitment to investigating it, the State Department said.

Pompeo met with both King Salman and Foreign Minister Ahmed al-Jubeir. “The secretary reiterated U.S. concern over Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance” in his meeting with the foreign minister, State Department Heather Nauert said in a statement. </s> U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Saudi Arabia’s King Salman on Tuesday to discuss the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as Turkish police prepared to search the Saudi consul’s residence in Istanbul in a widening probe.

Khashoggi, a U.S. resident and leading critic of the Saudi crown prince, vanished after entering the consulate on Oct. 2. Turkish officials say they believe he was murdered there and his body removed, which the Saudis strongly deny.

President Donald Trump, who dispatched Pompeo to Riyadh amid strained ties with the key ally, has speculated that “rogue killers” may be responsible after speaking with King Salman. </s> Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday morning for urgent meetings with King Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir to discuss the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi.

Turkish officials said they expect Pompeo to visit Ankara next, bringing important information about the case from the Saudis.

Rumors swirled on Tuesday morning that the Saudis are on the verge of admitting they killed Khashoggi in their consulate in Istanbul two weeks ago, an admission that would shake up the power structure of the Middle East, seriously damage American policy in the region, and potentially touch off a political crisis in Washington. Saudi officials have not commented on the reports, based on unnamed “sources.”

The U.S. State Department reported on Tuesday that Pompeo discussed a “range of regional and bilateral issues” with Foreign Minister al-Jubeir in addition to stressing “U.S. concern over Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance.”

Pompeo thanked King Salman for “Saudi Arabia’s strong partnership with the United States,” and also for his “commitment to supporting a thorough, transparent, and timely investigation of Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance.”

In a similar conversation with the crown prince, Pompeo stated the Trump administration’s desire to “determine what happened” to Khashoggi and welcomed bin Salman’s support for a “thorough, transparent, and timely investigation that provides answers.”

According to CNN, Pompeo met with King Salman for 15 minutes and spent no more than 40 minutes talking to Crown Prince bin Salman. Pompeo and the crown prince are scheduled to speak at greater length at dinner on Tuesday evening.

Behind the scenes, numerous media outlets quoted anonymous inside sources who said the Saudi monarchy is preparing to admit that, contrary to its vociferous previous denials, Saudi agents did murder Khashoggi within the Istanbul consulate.

The CBS News version of this story quoted “officials” who are “close to the kingdom” claiming the monarchy will admit Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved an operation to detain Khashoggi and interrogate him when he visited the consulate to obtain papers necessary for his impending marriage. These sources said Khashoggi “died as a result of an interrogation by Saudi operatives that went wrong.”

CBS then quoted a third source who claimed the story will be that a “general close to the crown prince” ordered the operation on his own, as discovered by the joint investigation Saudi Arabia has been conducting with Turkey. The statement of culpability will supposedly state this general “exceeded his authority and will be held accountable.”

This storyline is problematic for a number of reasons, not least that King Salman personally informed U.S. President Donald Trump in a phone call over the weekend that Saudi Arabia had absolutely nothing to do with Khashoggi’s disappearance. For the past two weeks, the Saudis claimed Khashoggi left the Istanbul consulate peacefully and then vanished. They have not been able to provide any evidence in the form of security video or documentation to back up this claim.

The Turkish government has allegedly been the source of sensational stories about Khashoggi suffering torture, death, and dismemberment at the hands of a 15-member death squad sent from Saudi Arabia to the consulate on the day of his disappearance. Among other details, these stories have claimed he was dismembered with a bone saw after his death, his body parts were either smuggled out of the consulate or dissolved in acid, and his Apple Watch recorded horrifying audio of his death by torture.

None of the evidence described in Turkish media leaks appears to have been shared with outside analysts, presented to the media, or confirmed by named government sources, although it is possible investigators from the U.S. or other countries have reviewed the material without making any public statement or backstage leaks yet.

The Turkish government has been somewhat less accusatory than the individuals anonymously leaking to Turkish and international media, but on Tuesday President Recep Tayyip Erdogan directly accused the Saudi consulate of concealing evidence from investigators.

“My hope is that we can reach conclusions that will give us a reasonable opinion as soon as possible, because the investigation is looking into many things such as toxic materials and those materials being removed by painting them over,” Erdogan said at a press conference on Tuesday after Turkish investigators entered the consulate for the first time. The “toxic material” in question would most likely be the acid supposedly used to dissolve Khashoggi’s remains.

Relations between Turkey and Saudi Arabia have become strained enough to require Pompeo act as mediator. Turkey’s Yeni Safak, a newspaper strongly supportive of President Erdogan and his administration, reported on Tuesday that Pompeo will bring “information” from the Saudis on the next leg of his emergency trip to the Middle East.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkish prosecutors may “ask for the testimony” of Saudi consular officials and then held the door open for the Saudi consul general to flee Turkey ahead of the investigation if he feels compelled to avoid giving testimony.

“If any Saudi diplomat wants to go to their country, they can go. There is no restriction,” said Cavusoglu, essentially dropping a rake on the ground and inviting the Saudis to step on it.

U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet on Tuesday called on Saudi Arabia to waive all diplomatic privileges for consular officials and cooperate fully with the investigation.

“Under international law, both a forced disappearance and an extra-judicial killing are very serious crimes, and immunity should not be used to impede investigations into what happened and who is responsible,” Bachelet stated.

Between the U.N. statements and Pompeo’s trip to Riyadh, the maximum possible space has been created for Saudi Arabia to make the next move, but the window of polite opportunity will only stay open for a few days.

Saudi Arabia could be facing a major internal crisis. It is certainly possible to demote a crown prince – that is how Mohammed bin Salman got the job – but bin Salman is an extraordinarily powerful crown prince who holds numerous important offices in the Saudi government and is chiefly responsible for the ambitious reform agenda that was intended to show foreign partners and investors Saudi Arabia is now a stable and modern place to do business. In other words, bin Salman spent the past few years trying to convince the world Saudi Arabia is not the sort of country that would lure a man into a consulate and torture him to death while his fiancee waited outside.

A political crisis may be brewing in Washington as well. A portion of the Republican caucus is making it clear they expect strong action against the Saudis if they murdered Khashoggi.

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) on Sunday called for Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to cancel his trip to Saudi Arabia for the “Davos in the Desert” investment conference to be hosted by Crown Prince bin Salman later this month.

Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC), who became a surprisingly ferocious ally of the Trump administration during the confirmation battle for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, declared on Tuesday that Crown Prince bin Salman “has got to go,” and he is ready to “sanction the hell” out of Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi.

“I feel personally offended. They have nothing but contempt for us,” Graham said of the Saudis. “[The Crown Prince] is a wrecking ball. He had this guy murdered in a consulate in Turkey, and to expect me to ignore it – I feel used and abused.” </s> U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed Tuesday in Saudi Arabia to meet with King Salman over the disappearance of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, who is believed to be dead.

Pompeo landed in Riyadh and was to speak Salman over the crisis surrounding Khashoggi and his alleged slaying. Pompeo was greeted by Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir.

Khashoggi vanished two weeks ago during a visit to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Pompeo is set to also visit the place where Khashoggi was last seen.

"The effort behind the scenes is focused on avoiding a diplomatic crisis between the two countries and has succeeded in finding a pathway to de-escalate tensions," said Ayham Kamel, the head of the Eurasia Group's Mideast and North African practice. "Riyadh will have to provide some explanation of the journalist's disappearance, but in a manner that distances the leadership from any claim that a decision was made at senior levels to assassinate the prominent journalist."

Turkish officials said they fear Khashoggi was killed and dismembered inside the consulate. Saudis have called the allegations “baseless.”

Media reports indicate that the Kingdom may acknowledge the writer was killed in the consulate.

Meanwhile, Turkish investigators were allowed to search the consulate on Monday, according to The Washington Post. But hours before the Turkish forensic team arrived, journalists photographed a cleaning crew entering the consulate, the paper reported.

The crew hauled buckets, mops and what appeared to be bottles of cleaning solution, The Post reported. Turkish investigators said they “smelled chemicals had been used,” two officials in contact with the investigators said, according to the paper.

“They are trying to make fun of us and our willingness to cooperate,” one of the officials said.

Forensics tests like spraying luminol, a chemical mixture, can expose blood left behind, said Mechthild Prinz, an associate professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice who previously worked at the New York City's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

"It depends on how well they cleaned it up," Prinz told the AP. "Obviously, you don't want anybody to have a chance to clean it up, but very often people do miss blood."

President Donald Trump, after speaking with King Salman, had dispatched Pompeo on Monday to speak to the monarch of the world's top oil exporter over Khashoggi's disappearance.

“I am immediately sending our Secretary of State to meet with King!” Trump tweeted Monday.

Khashoggi had written critically about Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, son of King Salman, for The Washington Post. The prince is next in the line to the throne, and his rise to power prompted the writer’s self-imposed exile in the U.S.

Khashoggi has criticized Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, its recent diplomatic spat with Canada and its arrest of women's rights activists after the lifting of a driving ban for women—policies seen as initiatives of the crown prince.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. </s> US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir in Riyadh (Reuters) </s> WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the Trump administration is revoking the visas of some Saudi officials implicated in the death of writer Jamal Khashoggi.

Pompeo announced the step at a State Department news conference Tuesday. Vice President Mike Pence said earlier that Khashoggi’s death at Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, “will not go without an American response.”

The visa revocations are the first punitive measures taken by the administration against the Saudis since Khashoggi disappeared after entering the consulate on Oct. 2.

Visa records are considered confidential and Pompeo did not say which or how many Saudi officials would have their visas revoked. Saudi authorities have detained 18 people in connection with Khashoggi’s death, which officials say was accidental despite Turkish allegations that Khashoggi was intentionally killed. </s> • Mike Pompeo reportedly gave Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman 72 hours to explain what happened to journalist Jamal Khashoggi on Tuesday.
• That time is now up – and the Saudis haven’t said anything further about his mysterious disappearance.
• The meeting was at around 3 p.m. local time in Riyadh on Tuesday, meaning the deadline hit at 8 a.m New York time on Friday.
• Khashoggi was a US resident and often criticized the Saudi regime in his Washington Post columns.
• He went into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul earlier this month, and never came out. The Saudis are suspected of foul play.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reportedly gave Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman 72 hours to “own” the Jamal Khashoggi disaster, and as of 8 a.m. EDT on Friday his time is up.

In the meeting in Riyadh on Tuesday – which finished at around 3 p.m. Saudi time – Pompeo told the Crown Prince he must “own” the disaster and has 72 hours to sort it out, an Axios source said.

The deadline has just passed, and the Saudi regime has yet to come forward with new information or an explanation that holds water.

At the meeting, Pompeo told the Crown Prince that time was “limited” because of rising global pressure to solve the mystery, the Axios report says.

The meeting lasted between 30-45 minutes and the pair dined together that evening too, CNN reported.

A US State Department press release from Pompeo on Tuesday said President Donald Trump told him it was “essential to determine what happened to Jamal Khashoggi,” and Pompeo wrote in the press release that he “had done just that.”

Pompeo wrote: “I emphasized the importance of conducting a thorough, transparent, and timely investigation, and the Saudi leadership pledged to deliver precisely on that.”

The exact start time of the meeting was not revealed by the US State Department or Saudi authorities, but live reports from journalists in Riyadh, and press photographs from news agency Reuters, place the meeting’s end at around 3 p.m. local time.

The Daily Beast on Tuesday reported that Saudi officials plan to pin Khashoggi’s death on an unnamed Saudi two-star general, citing two anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
• Here’s everything we know about the troubling disappearance of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi
• Trump is placing his trust in someone who is either lying or can’t stop his henchmen from brutally killing journalists
• Top Senate Democrat slams Trump’s response to Khashoggi killing, says president is making US look ‘weaker’ than ever by kowtowing to Saudis
• Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance is an ’embarrassing’ ‘crisis’ for Trump and ‘one of the roughest foreign-policy challenges’ he’s faced yet, experts say
• Missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi had a complicated past involving interviews with Osama bin Laden and close ties to the Saudi royal family
• Lindsey Graham says ‘toxic’ Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had Khashoggi ‘murdered’ and can ‘never be a world leader’
• Trump touts Saudi king’s ‘very strong’ denial and says ‘rogue killers’ could be responsible for Khashoggi disappearance
• Trump officials dodge questions on US support for Saudi Arabia amid Khashoggi crisis </s> Pressure from many world leaders continues to mount on Saudi Arabia weeks following this month’s disappearance of Saudi journalist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi, who was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 for routine paperwork needed to marry his Turkish fiancée.

Meanwhile, the Saudi government remains defensive and defiant even as media outlets in Turkey and the U.S. report more allegations that Riyadh played a role in the disappearance and presumed slaying of Khashoggi.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in urging patience to allow the Saudi government to carry out its own investigation, said Thursday the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have a long history as allies.

“I think it’s important for us all to remember too that we have a long—since 1932—we have a long strategic relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” Pompeo told reporters outside the White House following his meeting with President Donald Trump about the situation. “They can be an important counterterrorism partner, they have custody of two holy sites, they are an important strategic alliance.”

“There are lots of stories out there about what happened, and I’m going to allow the process to move forward and allow the facts to unfold,” he said. “And as they unfold, we will make a determination for ourselves about what happened there, based on the facts that are presented.”

More: ‘A few more days’: Secretary of State Pompeo urges patience over missing journalist

The G7 Foreign Ministers — composed of top diplomats from Canada, France, Germany Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and United States — issued a statement on Wednesday saying they remain troubled by the disappearance of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and critic of the oil-rich kingdom living in self-imposed exile. The ministers said that those responsible for his disappearance must be held to account.

The G7 statement came days after the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, Germany, and France issued a joint statement calling for a complete and detailed response to the missing Khashoggi from the Saudi government.

On Wednesday, UK Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt posted a photo on his Twitter account with Washington Post CEO Fred Ryan, with whom he met in London, and said there was an urgent need to know what happened to Khashoggi.

This image taken from CCTV video obtained by the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet and made available on Oct. 9, 2018, claims to show Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2018.

Federica Mogherini, European Union High Representative/Vice-President, said this week the EU expects “full clarity” and “full investigations” from Saudi authorities.

On Thursday morning, Amnesty International called on Turkey to ask the United Nation’s Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to establish a U.N. investigation that would give its team complete access to travel and to interview potential witnesses and suspects responsible for the possible extrajudicial killing of Khashoggi.

“UN involvement is the best guarantee against a Saudi whitewash or attempts by other governments to sweep the issue under the carpet to preserve lucrative business ties with Riyadh,” said Robert Mahoney, deputy executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, in an Amnesty International statement.

Other groups joining with Amnesty International: the Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, and Reporters Without Borders.

Jamal Khashoggi in a photo taken on December 15, 2014. The veteran Saudi journalist who has been critical of the government has gone missing after visiting the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul on September 2, 2018, the Washington Post reported.

In an interview with the BBC, the UN Secretary-General called for a “strong quest for the truth.” When asked whether governments should attend the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh this month, he replied that governments should “act in the appropriate way” once there’s a clear answer as to what happened to Khashoggi.

In his comments Thursday to reporters, Pompeo said the U.S. made it clear to the Saudi government the seriousness of the allegations against them. “They assured me that they will conduct a complete and thorough investigation,” he said.

A short time later, after meeting with Trump and Pompeo, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced on Twitter that he would not be attending the Oct. 23-25 conference dubbed “Davos in the desert.”

Many other high-profile attendees have dropped out of the investment conference including JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon, Ford Motor Company Chairman Bill Ford, and Virgin Group found Richard Branson, according to the Financial Times. CNN reported that on Tuesday the International Monetary Fund said its chairman Christine Lagarde has deferred her trip to Riyadh for the conference.

With many world leaders strident in their calls for an investigation to hold and punish those responsible, Trump has oscillated in his stance from calling for “severe punishment” to floating theories of “rogue killers” to saying his administration is “not going to walk away from Saudi Arabia.”

The kingdom has denied any involvement in the alleged disappearance of Khashoggi and has been defiant in its defense.

“The Kingdom as the government and people are steadfast, glorious as ever, no matter whatever the pressures and circumstances might be,” said a statement released Monday in the wake of the international outcry.

Through their public relations arm the Saudi Press Agency, the kingdom published statements of support and solidarity from several countries and groups in the region, including Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and the Arab League.

It reported, for example, that Jordan information minister Jumana Ghunaimat had issued a statement saying that “Jordan stands with Saudi Arabia in the face of any rumors and campaigns aimed at it without relying on facts.”
United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets in Riyadh with Saudi Arabia King Salman to express concerns about the disappearance of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi.