US denies giving Saudis 'benefit of doubt' over Jamal Khashoggi case

The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has denied giving the Saudi regime the “benefit of the doubt” over the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi and claimed that the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was satisfied with Saudi cooperation in the investigation.

But Pompeo made clear that the Trump administration would take commercial ties and Saudi cooperation in the attempted isolation of Iran into consideration when formulating a response to Khashoggi’s disappearance and reported murder.

Pompeo was speaking to reporters after a meeting with Erdoğan and the Turkish foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, in Ankara’s Esenboğa airport. The secretary of state had flown there from Riyadh as part of a mission to resolve the unanswered questions about the Saudi dissident journalist’s fate, and to contain the damage it was doing to relations between the three countries.

Khashoggi was killed minutes after he arrived at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to pick up marriage paperwork on 2 October, according to press reports of what Turkish officials said were audio recordings that prove he was beaten, drugged, killed and dismembered.

Before meeting Pompeo, Erdoğan said police had found freshly painted walls and “toxic” substances during a search of the consulate.

Çavuşoğlu described the two 40-minute meetings with Pompeo as “beneficial and fruitful”. After their conversation, Pompeo did not reveal what Erdoğan had told him about the investigation, other than to claim the Saudis were cooperating fully after “a couple of delays”.

“He made clear that the Saudis had cooperated with the investigation that the Turks are engaged in, and that they are going to share information that they learned with the Saudis as well,” Pompeo said. “There had been a couple of delays but they seemed pretty confident that the Saudis would permit them to do the things they needed to do to complete their thorough and complete investigation.”

Pompeo has attracted fierce criticism for his seemingly jovial meeting with the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. Several of Bin Salman’s security detail have been identified in press reports as members of the hit squad alleged to have murdered Khashoggi in the consulate.

Asked whether the Saudis had told him whether Khashoggi was dead or alive, Pompeo replied: “I don’t want to talk about any of the facts. They didn’t want to either, in that they want to have the opportunity to complete this investigation in a thorough way.”

Pompeo also claimed there was serious commitment in Riyadh to “determine all the facts and ensure accountability”.

After his meetings with the Turkish leadership, Pompeo said it was reasonable to give the Saudis more time to do so.

“It’s not about benefit of the doubt,” Pompeo said. “It’s that it is reasonable to give them a handful of days more to complete that so they get it right so that it’s thorough and complete and that’s what they’ve indicated they need and I’m hopeful that we’ll get to see it.”

However, he made clear that the Trump administration would take the broader US relationship with the Saudi regime into account in deciding how to respond to the Khashoggi case.

“I do think it’s important that everyone keeps in their mind that we have a lot of important relationships – financial relationships between US and Saudi companies, governmental relationships – things we work on together all across the world. The efforts to reduce the risk to the United States of America from the world’s largest state sponsor of terror, Iran,” Pompeo said.

“The Saudis have been great partners in working alongside us on those issues … And we just need to make sure that we are mindful of that as we approach decisions that the United States government will take.”

Donald Trump defended the Saudis on Tuesday in the face of mounting allegations that Riyadh was involved in Khashoggi’s killing.

In an interview with Associated Press, the US president said that Riyadh had again denied it had anything to do with the journalist’s disappearance and remained “innocent until proven guilty”.

The Wall Street Journal, citing Turkish officials who had heard the recording, said Khashoggi was allegedly killed and dismembered in the office of the consul general Mohammad al-Otaibi, who was in the room at the time. A voice on the recording could be heard inviting him to leave, the report said.

Salah Muhammad al-Tubaigy, a Saudi military forensics official, is reportedly heard putting on headphones to listen to music as he begins to dismember the body, and encourages other people in the room to do the same.

According to Middle East Eye, Khashoggi was dragged from the office to Otaibi’s study next door, where Tubaigy began cutting up his body on a table while he was still alive.

The New York Times reported on Tuesday that four of the men identified by Turkish media as part of a 15-man hit squad sent from Riyadh to silence Khashoggi were members of Bin Salman’s personal security detail. Tubaigy, holds a senior position in the Saudi interior ministry.

The suspects’ direct links to the Saudi establishment weaken the suggestion made by Trump that the alleged murder could have been carried out by “rogue killers” in an unauthorised operation.

Investigators believe that after the killing, Khashoggi’s body was taken to the consul general’s house, where it was disposed of.

Police set up barricades outside the residence on Tuesday evening to carry out a planned search of the premises, but Turkey was waiting for an agreement with Saudi Arabia to do so. Under the Vienna convention, diplomatic missions are considered foreign soil.

The consul general, who has not been seen in public since the scandal erupted, left Turkey on a commercial flight to Riyadh hours before his residence became part of the criminal investigation.

A search of the house and some diplomatic vehicles was planned for Wednesday evening, as well as a second sweep of the consulate.

Several Saudi investigators arrived at the consular residence on Wednesday afternoon ahead of the joint investigation.

The G7 foreign ministers said in a statement on Wednesday that they remained “very troubled” by Khashoggi’s disappearance.

“We, the G7 foreign ministers, of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and the high representative of the European Union, affirm our commitment to defending freedom of expression and protection of a free press,” they said.

“Those bearing responsibility for his disappearance must be held to account. We encourage Turkish-Saudi collaboration and look forward to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia conducting a thorough, credible, transparent, and prompt investigation, as announced.”