The fiancee of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist who vanished on Oct. 2 after entering the Saudi consulate in Turkey to obtain a marriage document, says she will only “consider” accepting an invitation to the White House if President Trump makes a “genuine contribution” to efforts aimed at revealing what happened to Khashoggi.
Hatice Cengiz, a doctoral student in Istanbul, wrote in an op-ed published in The New York Times on Saturday that she had seen reports about Trump wanting to invite her to the White House. But, she wrote, she would only “consider accepting” such an invitation if the president meaningfully aided in efforts to uncover what happened within the Saudi consulate on the day of Khashoggi’s disappearance.
{mosads}”In recent days, I saw reports about President Trump wanting to invite me to the White House,” Cengiz wrote. “If he makes a genuine contribution to the efforts to reveal what happened inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul that day, I will consider accepting his invitation.”
Trump invited Cengiz to the White House this week in comments to reporters earlier this week, and vowed “severe punishment” for the Saudi government if allegations of Khashoggi’s murder were confirmed.
Trump is facing mounting pressure over the situation, with bipartisan lawmakers on Capitol Hill saying that if Saudi Arabia is behind Khashoggi’s disappearance, there should be severe consequences for the U.S. relationship.
Khashoggi disappeared after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, and the Turkish government has said it has evidence that the journalist was killed and possibly dismembered inside the building. He was never seen leaving the building.
“Twelve days have passed. I have been waking up every morning hoping to hear from him. The speculations about his fate have not been confirmed by the authorities, but the silence of Saudi Arabia fills me with dread,” she writes.
Saudi officials have denied that Khashoggi was harmed in the consulate, and have announced a joint investigation with Turkish police into the matter.
“Jamal spoke up against oppression, but he paid for the Saudi people’s demand for freedom with his own life,” Cengiz wrote. “If he is dead, and I hope that is not the case, thousands of Jamals will be born today, on his birthday. His voice and his ideas will reverberate, from Turkey to Saudi Arabia, and across the world. Oppression never lasts forever. Tyrants eventually pay for their sins.”