Pompeo to meet Saudi king over missing writer

US President Donald Trump said on Monday he was sending his top diplomat to Saudi Arabia after Saudi King Salman told him he had 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.

He said he was immediately sending secretary of state Mike Pompeo to meet the king.

King Salman on Monday ordered an internal probe into the unexplained disappearance of the prominent journalist.

Trump has taken a cautious position since the disappearance of Khashoggi – a Washington Post contributor and critic of powerful Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Trump has threatened severe punishment should proof emerge to back claims that Saudi agents killed Khashoggi and disposed of his body.

However, the US president has made it clear he will not risk billions of dollars in deals to sell weapons to the kingdom, which is a strategic ally in the tinder box Middle East.

Following days of tensions, Saudi officials were due to let Turkish investigators enter the consulate on Monday evening.

Lurid claims have appeared in Turkish media, including that Khashoggi was tortured and dismembered.

The controversy has troubled Saudi Arabia’s traditional Western allies – many of them arms suppliers to the kingdom – and also 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.

A pro-government Turkish daily published preliminary evidence last week from investigators it said identified a 15member Saudi intelligence team which arrived in Istanbul on diplomatic passports hours before Khashoggi disappeared on October 2.

– AFP, Reuters