President Trump said Friday he plans to discuss the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi with King Salman of Saudi Arabia.
“I will be calling, I will be calling at some point King Salman. I’ll be speaking to him yes,” Trump told reporters in Ohio, where he is attending campaign events.
{mosads}Trump is facing mounting pressure to confront the Saudi government over Khashoggi, who went missing on Oct. 2 after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain papers for his upcoming marriage.
Turkish officials say they believe Khashoggi was killed inside the facility by a Saudi entourage, but the Saudis have denied those claims and said Khashoggi left the facility.
Trump said officials in all three countries are “looking very hard and fast” at the situation, but it still remains unclear what exactly happened to the journalist.
“It is potentially a really, really terrible situation, so we’ll see what happens,” he said.
Khashoggi’s disappearance has caused a diplomatic crisis with one of the U.S.’s closest allies in the Middle East.
The journalist, who wrote for The Washington Post and other publications, was critical of the Saudi government run by Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, who has formed close ties with the Trump administration, most notably Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner.
Trump has previously said he is unwilling to take steps like curbing arms sales to the Saudis but members of Congress in both parties are pressuring him to impose sanctions on Saudi officials in response to Khashoggi’s disappearance.