Saudi Arabia promised to ensure a thorough probe and accountability over a missing Saudi journalist but stood by denials the kingdom killed him, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday, as he paid a supportive visit to the under-fire ally.
President Donald Trump dispatched Pompeo on an urgent mission to Riyadh to defuse a crisis over Jamal Khashoggi, an insider turned critic of the conservative monarchy who was last seen on October 2 when he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to sort out marriage paperwork.
After a full day of talks, a statement from Pompeo and a tweet by Trump said that the Saudi leadership “strongly denied knowledge of what took place” in the consulate, without outright rejecting that an incident occurred.
Officials in Turkey, where Pompeo heads on Wednesday, say that the Saudis killed Khashoggi inside the consulate.