United States Secretary of State Michael R Pompeo spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Sunday and said that the US would hold people involved in the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi accountable.
In a statement released by the White House, State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said that Pompeo asked Saudi Arabia to hold the murderers of the dissident journalist accountable too.
Addressing the Yemen conflict and crisis, Pompeo called on the involved parties to join hands to find a peaceful solution to the situation.
"On Yemen, the Secretary reiterated the United States' calls for a cessation of hostilities and for all parties to come to the table to negotiate a peaceful solution to the conflict under the UN Special Envoy," Nauert said in the statement.
Khashoggi disappeared on October 2 after stepping into Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul to collect documents that would have allowed him to get married to his fiancee Hatice Cengiz. Cengiz, who was waiting outside the consulate, raised an alarm after Khashoggi failed to re-emerge from the consulate, leading to a chain of revelations by both Turkey and Saudi Arabia regarding this case.
Saudi authorities had earlier confirmed that Khashoggi had died inside its consular premises in Istanbul, leading to the arrest of 18 Saudi officials in connection with the crime.
On Saturday, Turkey stated that recordings related to the death of Saudi journalist Khashoggi have been shared with the United States, France, UK, Saudi Arabia, and Germany.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had asserted that Saudi Arabia knows that Khashoggi's killer is amongst the 15 Saudi nationals who landed in Istanbul before the October 2 incident.
Erdogan had repeatedly called for transparent investigations into the scribe's death, going as far as demanding that the arrested Saudi nationals be tried in Turkey.
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