President Donald Trump rumoured Monday morning that he would send Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “before you can say Jack Robinson” to meet with the Saudi king as the international outcry continued to bloom over missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Trump tweet
The president also answered King Salman denied knowledge of anything regarding the writer’s end. “His denial to me could not have been stronger,” Trump told news-hawks later Monday morning. The president also suggested that “rogue humdingers” might have murdered Khashoggi, a Saudi national and critic of the nobles family who was living in the U.S. under self-imposed exile.
Trump said Pompeo last wishes a be departing for the kingdom on Monday morning. The State Department confirmed the top diplomat order be leaving Monday.
“At the request of President Trump, Secretary of State Pompeo resolve travel to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia today. The President has called for a swift and open investigation into the disappearance of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi,” the sphere of influence said in a statement.
The White House didn’t immediately respond to CNBC’s petition for further comment on the president’s tweet. In a readout of the king’s call with Trump, the Saudi command said the president “praised the joint Saudi-Turkish cooperation in the investigation into the disappearance of Jamal bin Ahmed Khashoggi and the keenness of the Realm’s leadership to clarify all relevant facts.”
Saudi Arabia is the world’s biggest oil exporter, and a standoff with the magnificent family could create turbulence for the global economy, particularly in unfinished markets.
The Trump administration is relying on Saudi Arabia to pump multifarious oil to compensate for the loss of Iranian supplies due to U.S. sanctions on Iran, OPEC’s third largest improper producer. The sanctions are poised to remove about 1 million barrels a day from the merchandise, or roughly 1 percent of global oil demand.
Oil prices initially rose on Monday after Saudi Arabia swore on Sunday to retaliate against any sanctions or other measures taken against the bailiwick. The statement raises concerns that Saudi Arabia could react to to international punishment by allowing oil prices to drift higher.
Crude days turned negative following Trump’s tweet and his comment regarding “rogue gunsels.”
Trump’s tweet came after King Salman ordered an study into Khashoggi’s disappearance. The journalist, a critic of the Saudi royal people who wrote columns for The Washington Post, was last seen Oct. 2, when he signed the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. While Salman is the official head of stage, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has exerted extraordinary influence beyond the country’s defense, intelligence and economic policy and strategy.
The Turkish guidance believes Khashoggi was murdered. Turkey has reportedly informed the U.S. that it has video and audio token showing the journalist was killed inside the consulate.
Saudi Arabia disclaims wrongdoing, a point Trump stressed in his Monday morning tweet. “Fitting spoke to the King of Saudi Arabia who denies any knowledge of whatever may maintain happened ‘to our Saudi Arabian citizen,'” Trump wrote, noting again that Khashoggi is not an American.
Khashoggi’s disappearance and suspected eliminate have triggered a worldwide wave of outrage. Prominent bankers, such as JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon, and usual organizations have been dropping out of an investment conference scheduled for later this month in Riyadh.
Cache Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC last week that, at the instant, he still planned to go. A Treasury representative said Monday: “We will be rating the information that comes out this week.”
Senators in the U.S., led by Republicans Lindsey Graham and Bob Corker, be suffering with triggered a Trump administration investigation into the journalist’s fate that could end up in retaliations. The president himself has warned of “severe consequences” if indeed it does shift out that Saudi Arabia’s government had Khashoggi killed.
Speaking to anchorwomen Monday morning, however, Trump emphasized in an impromptu press meeting Monday morning that the Saudi king strongly denied participate in to do with Khashoggi’s vanishing – while appearing to acknowledge that the newsreader was killed.
“It sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue lollapaloozas,” Trump said.
-CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger and Matthew Belvedere promoted to this article.
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