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Agence France-Presse

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that “rogue killers” could be behind the disappearance of a dissident Saudi journalist and said that the oil-rich state’s monarch emphatically denies involvement.
“The denial was very, very strong,” Trump told reporters at the White House after talking to King Salman by telephone. “It sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers. Who knows?”
“All I can do is report what he told me. He told me in a very firm way that they had no knowledge of it. He said it very strongly,” Trump said.
Trump said that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on his way to Saudi Arabia to discuss the controversy over journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a contributor to The Washington Post and a critic of powerful Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Police enter Saudi consulate where Turks say writer was murdered
Khashoggi vanished after visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. Turkish sources say he was murdered there by a team of Saudi agents.

Trump has taken a cautious position, threatening “severe punishment” should proof emerge of Saudi guilt, but insisting that he would not risk billions of dollars in deals to sell US weapons to the kingdom, a strategic ally in the Middle East.
Following days of mounting tensions, Saudi officials were allowing Turkish investigators to enter the consulate on Monday.
Weapons sales and Iran complicate US response to missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi
A Turkish diplomatic source said it was expected that the search, to be conducted jointly with Saudi authorities, would “take place towards the evening”.
Lurid claims have appeared in Turkish media, including that Khashoggi was tortured before being killed and dismembered. However, the Turkish leadership has so far refrained from pointing the finger directly at Riyadh in public comments.
The controversy has also embarrassed Saudi Arabia’s other traditional Western allies – many of them arms suppliers to the kingdom – and undermined efforts by the prince, Mohammed, to present himself as the modernising future of the kingdom.

An investment conference seen as a platform for the crown prince, due to take place next week in Riyadh and dubbed “Davos in the Desert”, has been hit by a string of prominent cancellations.
Business barons including British billionaire Richard Branson and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, as well as media powerhouses like Bloomberg, The New York Times and CNN, have pulled out of the Future Investment Initiative (FII).
Saudi Arabia vows retaliation if punished over missing writer Jamal Khashoggi
In major new twin blows to the credibility of the event, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Ford chairman Bill Ford also cancelled plans to attend, CNBC reported.
In Washington, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, is coming under pressure after having spearheaded the administration’s strategy to forge close ties with Mohammed.
But US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Saturday that he still planned to attend the Saudi conference.
“If more information comes out over the next week, I will obviously take that into account,” he said.


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Saudi Arabia

After talking to Saudi king, Trump suggests ‘rogue killers’ could have murdered missing journalist

A protester holding a photo of Jamal Khashoggi during a rally outside the Saudi embassy in Washington on October 10. Photo: Washington Post

(FILES) In this file photo taken on October 9, 2018 US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks outside the West Wing at the White House in Washington, DC. - US President Donald Trump said October 15, 2018 he is sending his top diplomat to Saudi Arabia after Saudi King Salman told him in a phone call that he has no idea what happened to missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi. "Just spoke to the King of Saudi Arabia who denies any knowledge of whatever may have happened 'to our Saudi Arabian citizen,'" Trump said in a tweet, adding he was "immediately sending" Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to meet with the king. (Photo by Olivier Douliery / AFP)

(FILES) In this handout file photo provided by the Saudi Royal Palace on May 20, 2017, US President Donald Trump (2nd-R), First Lady Melania Trump (C) and Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud (R) arrive at the Saudi Royal Court in Riyadh. - Khashoggi's disappearance fits a pattern of recent crackdown on dissent in the kingdom. The kingdom has come under intensifying international pressure as Turkey accuses it of failing to cooperate in a probe over the disappearance of Khashoggi, a columnist for the Washington Post who sought exile in the United States last year. US President Donald Trump has also threatened "severe punishment" if it turns out he was killed, though he has declined to halt multi-billion dollar arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which analysts argue could be the most effective sanction. (Photo by BANDAR AL-JALOUD / Saudi Royal Palace / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / SAUDI ROYAL PALACE / BANDAR AL-JALOUD" - NO MARKETING - NO ADVERT

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The US president says King Salman strongly denied involvement in the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi


The US president says King Salman strongly denied involvement in the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi.


Donald Trump