Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Donald Trump this morning to discuss his brief meetings with Saudi officials about Jamal Khashoggi. After the meeting with the President, he briefed reporters. Here’s part of what he said:
“We made clear we take this matter with respect to Mr. Khashoggi seriously. They made clear to me they too understand the serious nature of the disappearance of Mr. Khashoggi.
They also assured me that they will conduct a complete, thorough investigation of all of the facts surrounding Mr. Khashoggi and they’ll do so in a timely fashion. This report itself will be transparent for everyone to see, to ask questions about, and to acquire with respect to it. And I told President Trump we ought to give them a few more days to complete that so that we, too, have a complete understanding of the facts surrounding that. At which point, we can make decisions about how or if the United States should respond to the incident surrounding Mr. Khashoggi.”
Axios is reporting that after the photo op, Pompeo told Prince Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad that it was time to come clean about what happened
While President Trump took a soft stance, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman he had 72 hours to complete his “investigation” into the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, or risk wrecking the kingdom’s place on the world stage, Axios Jonathan Swan reports.
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A source with knowledge of the conversation told Axios that Pompeo told MBS, in their Tuesday meeting, that he needs to “own” the situation.
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Pompeo stressed the timeline for dealing with the situation is “limited” because global pressure is mounting.
Watch what else Pompeo said above.
