US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Photos / AP
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Photos / AP
Turkish investigators searching the Saudi Arabian consulate where journalist Jamal Khashoggi went missing have found fresh coats of paint, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said.
"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 told reporters in Ankara.
CNN reported today that a Turkish official had said that Khashoggi's body was cut into pieces. The claim was first made to the New York Times earlier in the investigation.
A high-level Turkish official also told AP that police who searched the consulate in Istanbul found evidence that Khashoggi was killed there, as authorities prepared to search the consul's residence nearby after the diplomat left the country.
Security forces began setting up barricades in front of the residence just hours after Consul Mohammed al-Otaibi flew out of the country, state media reported. Saudi Arabia did not immediately acknowledge the consul left the country, two weeks after Khashoggi disappeared at the diplomatic post he ran.
In Riyadh, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo smiled and shook hands during meetings with Saudi King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom Khashoggi wrote critically about in the Washington Post while in self-imposed exile in America.
Saudi officials have called Turkish allegations that Saudi agents killed Khashoggi "baseless," but reports in US media yesterday suggested that the Saudis may acknowledge the writer was killed at the consulate, perhaps as part of a botched interrogation.
A high-level Turkish official told AP that police found evidence there of Khashoggi's slaying, without elaborating.
Police planned a second search at the Saudi consul's home nearby. Leaked surveillance footage show diplomatic cars travelled to the consul's home shortly after Khashoggi's disappearance at the consulate on October 2.
In Riyadh, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir greeted Pompeo when he landed. The former CIA chief didn't make any remarks to the media.
Soon after, Pompeo arrived at a royal palace, where he thanked King Salman "for accepting my visit on behalf of President (Donald) Trump" before the two went into a closed-door meeting.
The Saudi Arabia consul's residence, in Istanbul.
Pompeo then met a smiling Prince Mohammed, the 33-year-old heir apparent to the throne of the world's largest oil exporter. Khashoggi fled Saudi Arabia and took up a self-imposed exile in the United States after the prince's rise, and had written columns critical of his policies.
"We are strong and old allies," the prince told Pompeo. "We face our challenges together — the past, the day of, tomorrow."
Trump, who dispatched Pompeo to speak to the monarch over Khashoggi's disappearance, said after talking with King Salman that the slaying could have been carried out by "rogue killers." Trump provided no evidence, but that statement appeared to offer the US-allied kingdom a possible path out of a global diplomatic firestorm.
"The king firmly denied any knowledge of it," Trump told reporters yesterday. "It sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers. I mean, who knows? We're going to try getting to the bottom of it very soon, but his was a flat denial."
Left unsaid was the fact that any decision in the ultraconservative kingdom rests solely with the ruling Al Saud family.
And let's not forget, it seems that Jamal was murdered by his own country. HIS OWN BLOODY COUNTRY. We look on embassies and consulates as a place of sanctuary; protected ground, home turf. And yet, it appears it was a trap, that's where they killed him. Gangsters.
"The effort behind the scenes is focused on avoiding a diplomatic crisis between the two countries and has succeeded in finding a pathway to deescalate tensions," said Ayham Kamel, the head of the Eurasia Group's Mideast and North Africa division.
"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."
CNN reported that the Saudis were going to acknowledge the killing happened but deny the king or crown prince had ordered it — which does not match what analysts and experts know about the kingdom's inner workings.
The New York Times reported that the Saudi royal court would suggest that an official within the kingdom's intelligence services — a friend of Prince Mohammed — had carried out the killing.
•Many agendas at play •Many pseudo analysts who are lobbyists/consultants for Govs •Check your source: Known outlets are more credible, go to source •This is the Middle East: spins, intel tactics part of daily life mastered by everyone..
Pompeo thanks Salman for " thorough, transparent, timely investigation" of Khashoggi disappearance. Gone are old days when James Baker slammed his notebook shut and told Assad, Shamir and Palestinians It's gonna be long time before I'm coming back here. https://t.co/oXt2wHV28c
According to that reported claim, the crown prince had approved an interrogation or rendition of Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia, but the intelligence official was tragically incompetent as he eagerly sought to prove himself. Both reports cited anonymous people said to be familiar with the Saudi plans.
Saudi officials have not answered repeated requests for comment.
Saudi officials have been in and out of the building since Khashoggi's disappearance without being stopped. Under the Vienna Convention, diplomatic posts are technically foreign soil that must be protected and respected by host countries.
Turkey has wanted to search the consulate for days. Permission apparently came after a Monday call between King Salman and Erdogan.
The Turkish inspection team included a prosecutor, a deputy prosecutor, anti-terror police and forensic experts, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported. Certain areas of the consulate were to remain off-limits, although officials would be able to inspect surveillance cameras, Turkish media reported.
