U.K. to Press Saudi Arabia Over Khashoggi Probe, Yemen Crisis

(Bloomberg) -- Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt on Monday begins the first visit to Saudi Arabia by a British minister since the death of Jamal Khashoggi, the journalist killed after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October.

Hunt will use meetings with officials including King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to urge Saudi Arabia to cooperate with Turkey over the investigation into the murder, according to his office in London.

“It is clearly unacceptable that the full circumstances behind his murder still remain unclear,” Hunt said in a statement.

Turkish prosecutors have said that the Washington Post columnist was strangled soon after entering the consulate and that his body was dismembered in a premeditated hit. The Crown Prince, the heir to the throne, has denied any involvement in the killing, calling it a “heinous crime that cannot be justified.”

Hunt, who’s also visiting the United Arab Emirates this week, will call for an end to the bloodshed in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is fighting Houthi rebels believed to be backed by Iran.

The United Nations has called the conflict the world’s worst humanitarian disaster, but UN Security Council members are divided over how hard to pressure Saudi Arabia over its role.

Man-Made Catastrophe

“We are witnessing a man-made humanitarian catastrophe on our watch: now is the window to make a difference, and to get behind both the UN peace process and current U.K. efforts in the Security Council,” Hunt said.

The visit comes as Prime Minister Theresa May uses her annual foreign-policy speech to outline the action taken against Russia following the nerve-agent attack on a former spy in southern England in March.

“We remain open to a different relationship -– one where Russia desists from these attacks that undermine international treaties and international security -- and instead acts together with us to fulfill the common responsibilities we share as permanent members of the UN Security Council,” May will tell the Lord Mayor’s Banquet in London on Monday, according to her office.

“And we hope that the Russian state chooses to take this path. If it does, we will respond in kind.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Atkinson in London at a.atkinson@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Mark Niquette, Ros Krasny

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