Trump: Writer's death apparent

President Donald Trump said Thursday that it appears that Jamal Khashoggi is dead and warned that his administration could consider "very severe" measures against Saudi Arabia, sharply raising pressures on the kingdom as it prepares its own accounting of the journalist's disappearance.

Trump's remarks reflect apparent shifting strategies and views in the White House over its response and possible punishments toward one of its key Middle East allies.

Trump has said any U.S. actions over Khashoggi's disappearance must take into account the security and defense ties the United States has with the kingdom. But Trump also must contend with the international furor at Saudi Arabia, and calls within Republican ranks to take a harder line.

As he boarded a flight to Montana for a political rally, Trump was asked whether he believed Khashoggi was dead.

"It certainly looks that way to me," he said. "It's very sad."

He added that Saudi Arabia could face a "very severe" U.S. response depending on the results of the self-run investigation by the kingdom into the disappearance of Khashoggi, a Saudi citizen and Washington Post contributing columnist, who was last seen in public entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

"I mean, it's bad, bad stuff. But we'll see what happens," Trump said.

The United States is caught squarely between two long-standing partners.

Turkish officials say evidence indicated that Khashoggi was killed by Saudi agents. Saudi leaders deny having any knowledge of Khashoggi's fate, but promised to conduct their own inquiries into the case.

Administration officials, meanwhile, have told Trump that the Saudis may come up with a narrative that blames someone else in the kingdom and try to insulate King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country's de facto ruler. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions.

But such a finding by Saudi Arabia could meet immediate skepticism from a country where the rulers typically are involved in every major decision.

Trump said the White House expected to have a Saudi account of the Khashoggi case "very soon."

Earlier Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the White House to allow "a few more days" for Saudi Arabia to issue its own report on Khashoggi, even as Turkish police expanded their investigation.

Turkish authorities said they will now search at least two rural areas outside Istanbul, local news agencies and a Turkish official said.

In the administration's first formal rebuke of Saudi Arabia over the Khashoggi case, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday that he would join many other political leaders and business executives canceling their participation in a major investment forum in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, next week.

Hours earlier, finance chiefs from France, Britain and the Netherlands announced that they would not attend the Riyadh conference.

A large delegation of Russian chief executives and at least one billionaire still plan to attend the conference.

In Turkey, meanwhile, police exploring the disappearance of 59-year-old Khashoggi -- who they believe was killed inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul by a team of agents from Saudi Arabia -- are reviewing security footage from the entrances to Istanbul's Belgrad Forest, roughly 10 miles north of the city center, Turkish media reported.

They also expect to search farmland in Turkey's Yalova province, which is about 60 miles from Istanbul.

Up until now, the inquiry has focused on the consulate in Istanbul's Levent district and the nearby residence of the Saudi consul general, Mohammed al-Otaibi, who left Turkey this week.

Turkey's pro-government Sabah newspaper published Thursday what it said were images from closed-circuit television of Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb -- an apparent member of the Saudi security services who may have previously traveled with Prince Mohammed -- outside the consulate on the day Khashoggi disappeared. Other images show Mutreb checking out of an Istanbul hotel and at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport hours after Khashoggi was last seen in public.

In Russia, President Vladimir Putin used the Khashoggi case to take a swipe at the Trump administration's cautious approach.

At a foreign-policy conference in the Black Sea resort Sochi, Putin said that while the West was quick to punish Moscow after the poisoning of a former Russian spy in England in March -- in which the Kremlin denies any role -- things look very different in the aftermath of the apparent murder of Khashoggi.

"There's no proof in regards to Russia, but steps are taken," Putin said.

Information for this article was contributed by Kareem Fahim, Zeynep Karatas, Anton Troianovski, Josh Dawsey and Brian Murphy of The Washington Post; and by Jake Rudnitsky, Ilya Arkhipov and Irina Reznik of Bloomberg News.

A Section on 10/19/2018