Riyadh rejects allegations over missing journalist

Kingdom’s ambassador to US says allegations Riyadh killed or detained him ‘absolutely false and baseless’

Saudi Arabia has described as “absolutely false and baseless” any allegations that the kingdom detained or killed missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Saudi ambassador to the US Prince Khalid Bin Salman said he had “regular contact” with Khashoggi before his disappearance last week, calling the journalist a friend.

“Jamal has many friends in the kingdom, including myself,” Prince Khalid wrote in a letter to close contacts, which was obtained by NBC News.

He said the kingdom was taking “extraordinary” measures to find him “just as we would if it were any other Saudi citizen”.

Saudi Arabia has also agreed to let Turkish authorities search its Istanbul consulate, from which Khashoggi went missing last week, Turkey said.

Saudi Arabia has agreed to let Turkish authorities search the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate after journalist Jamal Khashoggi went missing last week, the Turkish foreign ministry said yesterday.

Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the US Prince Khalid Bin Salman said he had “regular contact” with Khashoggi before his disappearance last week, calling Jamal Khashoggi a “friend” as he dismissed allegations that Saudi Arabia killed or detained him “absolutely false, and baseless”.

“Jamal has many friends in the Kingdom, including myself,” Khalid wrote in the letter, which was obtained by NBC News.

The announcement came as the Washington Post, for which Khashoggi was a columnist, published a surveillance image of the journalist walking into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, just before he disappeared.

Turkish officials have said they fear the columnist was killed inside the premises. But Saudi Arabia has called the allegations that it killed 59-yearold Khashoggi “baseless”.

Yesterday’s statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, Hami Aksoy, said Saudi authorities have notified Ankara that they were “open to cooperation” and would allow the consulate building to be searched. The ministry did not say when the premises would be searched.

The door Khashoggi walked in through appeared to be the main entrance of the consulate.

President Donald Trump said he had concerns. “I don’t like hearing about it. And hopefully that will sort itself out,” Trump said. “Right now, nobody knows anything about it, but there are some pretty bad stories going around. I do not like it.”