PARIS — President Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the killing of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi during a Saturday evening dinner hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron.
Trump and Erdogan spoke shortly after reports that Turkey shared with U.S. officials audio allegedly documenting Khashoggi’s Oct. 2 death inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
“I can confirm they sat next to one another and they discussed the ongoing tragic situation with Khashoggi,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement first reported by the Daily Mail.
Photos of Erdogan and Trump were released overnight, showing the men seated next to each other at the dinner, which Macron hosted for world leaders attending Sunday events on the centennial of World War I’s end.
Trump and Erdogan appear to be conversing in several photos. Trump sat opposite from Macron, and Erdogan opposite the French first lady Brigitte Macron.
The Khashoggi investigation has helped repair strained relations between the U.S. and Turkey, which last month released a jailed American pastor after Trump applied sanctions to Turkish government ministers.
Turkish authorities say Khashoggi’s killing was premeditated by a bone saw-equipped hit team with links to Saudi Arabia’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whose leadership was criticized by the Washington Post columnist.
Saudi officials claim that the journalist, a former royal insider turned dissident living in Virginia, was killed as a result of a rogue operation.
Trump has vowed severe repercussions if Saudi leaders are determined to be responsible. On Saturday, news outlets reported that the U.S. military had ended refueling assistance to a Saudi-led coalition fighting to restore Yemen’s ousted President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. The intervention, spearheaded by Crown Prince Mohammed, is credited with killing thousands of civilians and putting millions of others at risk of dying from famine.
The traveling White House press pool had no access to the Saturday evening dinner or its guest list. They waited outside in vans, spotting only Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Monaco’s Prince Albert.
