The reported phone call to the White House came before Saudi Arabia admitted Jamal Khashoggi had been killed.
There is still no consensus on how Jamal Khashoggi died. The journalist entered the consulate to sort out documents for his marriage.
Initially, Turkish media had quoted sources as saying Turkey had audio recordings proving that Jamal Khashoggi had been tortured before being murdered.
Last week, however, Turkey said he had been strangled immediately after entering the consulate and Jamal Kashoggi’s body dismembered “in accordance with plans made in advance”.
Nobody has been found and a Turkish official said the body had been dissolved.
Saudi Arabia has changed its account of what happened to the journalist.
When Jamal Khashoggi first disappeared, Saudi Arabia said the journalist had walked out of the building alive. Saudi Arabia later admitted he had been murdered, saying the killing was premeditated and a result of a “rogue operation”.
Eighteen suspects have been arrested in Saudi Arabia, where will be prosecuted. However, Turkey wants the suspects to be extradited.
Turkey has not publicly blamed Saudi Arabia for the killing.
President Erdogan said in a TV speech on November 10: “We gave the recordings, we gave them to Saudi Arabia, we gave them to Washington, to the Germans, to the French, to the English.”
“They listened to the conversations which took place here, they know,” he said.
No other country has admitted hearing the said recording.
Speaking to reporters after a phone call with King Salman of Saudi Arabia, President Donald Trump has suggested “rogue killers” could be behind the disappearance of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey.
He said the Saudi king had firmly denied knowing what had happened to Jamal Khashoggi.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is flying to Saudi Arabia immediately.
Turkish police have, for the first time, been inside the Saudi consulate where Jamal Khashoggi was last seen.
They entered the building around an hour after a group of Saudi officials.
Turkish officials believe Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in the consulate by Saudi agents nearly two weeks ago but Riyadh has always strongly denied this.
Meanwhile, unconfirmed media reports suggest Saudi Arabia is preparing to admit that Jamal Khashoggi died as a result of an interrogation that went wrong and that the original intention had been to abduct him.
Arabic channel Al-Jazeera quotes Turkey’s attorney-general’s office as saying it has found evidence to back claims that Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the mission.
The issue has strained Saudi Arabia’s ties with its closest Western allies.
President Trump addressed snatched questions from reporters over helicopter engine noise at the White House, describing King Salman’s denial as “very, very strong”.
“It sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers,” he added.
“Who knows?”
President Trump provided no evidence to back his comment.
Last week, the president threatened Saudi Arabia with “severe punishment” if it emerged that Jamal Khashoggi had been killed inside the consulate but ruled out halting big military contracts with Riyadh.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to Saudi Arabia will be followed by a stop in Turkey.
Diplomatic pressure is growing on the Saudis to give a fuller explanation.
On October 15, King Salman ordered an investigation into the case.
“The king has ordered the public prosecutor to open an internal investigation into the Khashoggi matter based on the information from the joint team in Istanbul,” a Saudi official quoted by Reuters said.
The official said the prosecutor had been instructed to work quickly.
Last week, Turkey accepted a Saudi proposal to form a joint working group to investigate Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance.
Investigators entered the consulate in Istanbul on October 15 – first a Saudi team followed roughly an hour later by Turkish forensic police.
Turkish diplomatic sources had said the consulate would be searched by a joint Turkish-Saudi team.
A group of cleaners was seen entering earlier.
Saudi Arabia agreed last week to allow Turkish officials to conduct a search but insisted it would only be a superficial “visual” inspection.
Turkey rejected that offer. The Sabah daily newspaper said investigators had wanted to search the building with luminol, a chemical which shows up any traces of blood. It is not clear whether that happened.
King Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by telephone on October 14, officials said, and stressed the importance of the two countries working together on the case.
According to recent reports, Turkish officials have audio and video evidence that shows missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Washington Post’s writer Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi government, has not been seen since he entered the consulate on October 2.
Turkish intelligence had “documented evidence” of the murder, a source close to the investigation said.
However, Saudi Arabia denies the allegations. It says Jamal Khashoggi left the building.
The journalist’s disappearance and reported death have prompted international outrage and dented business confidence in Saudi Arabia.
Richard Branson has suspended talks over $1 billion Saudi investment in Virgin space companies and several top business leaders have pulled out of a Saudi investment conference later this month.
The latest reports suggest an assault and a struggle took place in the consulate.
One source cited by the Washington Post said men can be heard beating Jamal Khashoggi; it adds that the recordings show he was killed and dismembered.
Earlier this week leading columnist Kemal Ozturk, considered close to the Turkish government, alleged there was a video of the moment Jamal Khashoggi was killed.
Turkish TV has already broadcast CCTV footage of the moment Jamal Khashoggi walked into the consulate for an appointment at which he was due to receive papers for his forthcoming marriage to Turkish fiancée Hatice Cengiz.
Separately, a video has emerged of men described as Saudi intelligence officers entering and leaving Turkey.
A 15-strong team has been identified by Turkish media who are described as involved in Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance.
Turkey’s official line is that the journalist is missing but that it knows “for sure” he has been killed.
However, the government has agreed to a joint investigation with the Saudis, and a Saudi delegation arrived in Turkey on October 12 to take part in talks expected over the weekend.
Their arrival came a day after a senior Saudi royal figure, Prince Khaled al-Faisal, was said to have briefly visited Turkey amid signs that the Saudi monarchy was seeking an urgent solution to the diplomatic crisis between the two countries.
Missing Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi is feared dead after Turkish officials said they believe he has been murdered at the Saudi consulate in Instanbul.
According to Turkish officials, initial investigations indicated the Saudi national was murdered there.
Jamal Khashoggi, 59, went missing after visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.
Saudi Arabia has denied the accusations, saying it is “working to search for him”.
The Washington Post said it would be a “monstrous and unfathomable act” if Jamal Khashoggi had been killed.
Turkish officials have opened an investigation and have been speaking to the media on condition of anonymity.
They have not given any evidence for their claim, nor suggest how he was killed.
Jamal Khashoggi is a high-profile critic of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The journalist has more than 1.6 million Twitter followers and has written for the Washington Post opinion section.
On October 2, he went to the consulate to obtain a document certifying he had divorced his ex-wife, so that he could marry his Turkish fiancée, Hatice Cengiz.
Hatice Cengiz said she waited outside for 11 hours, but he did not come out.
She said Jamal Khashoggi was required to surrender his mobile phone, which is standard practice in some diplomatic missions. He told her to call an adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan if he did not return.
The head of the Turkish-Arab Media Association, Turan Kislakci, told the New York Times that Turkish police officers providing security for the consulate had checked their security cameras and did not see the journalist leave on foot. However, diplomatic cars had been seen moving in and out.
On October 3, Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Bloomberg News that Turkish authorities were welcome to search the building because “we have nothing to hide”.
He said: “He’s a Saudi citizen and we are very keen to know what happened to him. And we will continue our dialogue with the Turkish government to see what happened to Jamal there.
“My understanding is he entered and he got out after a few minutes or one hour. I’m not sure. We are investigating this through the foreign ministry to see exactly what happened at that time.”
When asked if Jamal Khashoggi faced charges in Saudi Arabia, the crown prince said his country would need to know where he was first.
Jamal Khashoggi is one of the most prominent critics of the crown prince, who has unveiled reforms praised by the West while carrying out an apparent crackdown on dissent. Human and women’s rights activists, intellectuals and clerics have been arrested – meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is waging a war in Yemen that has triggered a humanitarian crisis.
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