Search at Saudi consul general residence did not happen Tuesday due to claims of family's presence but team hopes to enter today, says Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said he hopes that the residence of Saudi Arabia's consul general will be searched on Wednesday.
"The search of the Saudi consul general residence did not happen on Tuesday due to claims of the family's presence, but the team hopes to enter today," Çavuşoğlu said.
Following permission for a search of the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkish and Saudi officials are to search the residence of the Saudi consul concerning the case of missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Amid the ongoing investigation of Khashoggi however, Saudi Arabia's Consul General in Istanbul Mohammad al-Otaibi left Turkey for Riyadh on Tuesday.
Khashoggi has long been feared killed at the consulate after he entered the Saudi Consulate building in Istanbul on Oct. 2 and was never seen exiting.
On the same day, 15 other Saudis, including several officials, arrived in Istanbul on two planes and visited the consulate while Khashoggi was still inside, Turkish police sources said. All of the identified individuals have since left Turkey.
Speaking from the airport in Ankara, Çavuşoğlu said talks with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were "beneficial and fruitful." Pompeo was on a brief visit to Turkey after having met with the Saudi king, crown prince and foreign minister in Riyadh on Tuesday.
Çavuşoğlu said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told Pompeo Turkey could easily clear northern Syria's Manbij of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) if Washington failed to do so.
The YPG is the armed wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is the Syrian offshoot of the PKK. The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.
The foreign minister added that the U.S. “accepts there is a delay in implementing the Manbij roadmap.”
The Manbij deal between Turkey and the U.S. focuses on the withdrawal of YPG/PKK terrorists from the city to stabilize the region, which is in the northeast of Aleppo province in northern Syria.
Çavuşoğlu said Turkey and the U.S. “are on same page regarding the lifting of sanctions and other related matters.”
