US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is on his way to Riyadh to speak to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi.
Pompeo was in the air when a Turkish police forensics team wrapped up its hours-long search of the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul early Tuesday morning.
Trump said on Monday he had spent about 20 minutes on the phone with King Salman, who denied having any information about what had happened to Khashoggi.
King Salman ordered the public prosecutor to open an internal investigation into the Khashoggi case, a Saudi official said. “The King has ordered the public prosecutor to open an internal investigation into the Khashoggi matter based on the info from the joint team in Istanbul,” said the official.
In Istanbul, meanwhile, Turkish and Saudi investigators began conducting a joint inspection of the consulate. A team arrived by unmarked police cars at the consulate but said nothing to journalists waiting outside as they entered the building.
The kingdom has called the allegations of foul play “baseless” but has offered no evidence the writer left the consulate.
