German FM puts plan to visit Saudi Arabia on hold

By Ayhan Simsek

BERLIN (AA) - German foreign minister has put on hold his plans to visit Saudi Arabia amid an ongoing investigation into the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Speaking at a news conference in Berlin, Heiko Maas urged Saudi Arabia to “fully cooperate” in the investigation and stressed that those bearing responsibility must be held to account.

“Regarding my travel plans […] we were actually considering a visit as part of our dialogue with Saudi Arabia. Now we would wait and see,” he said.

“The Saudi authorities have said they would make a statement. We would then decide whether a visit to Saudi Arabia would make sense at this point in time,” he added.

Khashoggi, a columnist for the Washington Post newspaper, has long been feared killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul after he entered on Oct. 2 and was never seen exiting.

On Monday, Turkish and Saudi officials searched the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul after the start of a joint probe into the missing journalist.

Saudi authorities have yet to give a clear explanation of what happened to Khashoggi, while several countries -- particularly Turkey, the U.S., and the U.K. -- are pressing for the mystery to be cleared up as soon as possible.