The US has joined the list of countries to drop out of next week's investment conference in Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has announced he would no longer attend next week's investment conference in Saudi Arabia, as the Trump administration awaited the outcome of investigations into missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Mnuchin announced the decision in a post on Twitter following a meeting with President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who recently returned from meetings with top leaders in Riyadh and Ankara.
"Just met with @realDonaldTrump and @SecPompeo and we have decided, I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia," Mnuchin wrote on Twitter.
The Saudis have said they plan to move forward with the conference, scheduled for Octtober 23-25, despite a wave of cancellations by high-profile business, government and media leaders.
Mnuchin's withdrawal comes after top financial, trade and foreign officials from Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands also dropped out.
Britain's International Development Secretary confirmed he will not be attending the conference amid concerns over Khashoggi.
A UK government spokesman said Dr Liam Fox had decided the "time is not right" for him to attend the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh later this month.
A UK Government spokesman said: "We encourage Turkish-Saudi collaboration and look forward to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia conducting a thorough, credible, transparent and prompt investigation, as announced.
"Those bearing responsibility for his disappearance must be held to account."
Dr Fox's withdrawal came as French finance minister Bruno Le Maire and his Dutch counterpart Wopke Hoekstra also announced they were pulling out of the event dubbed "Davos in the desert".
Le Maire said the disappearance of Khashoggi was a "serious" matter and the facts about it need to be explained by Saudi authorities.
Dutch foreign minister Stef Blok said that a Dutch trade mission to Saudi Arabia planned for December was also now unlikely to go ahead.
A number of senior top business executives have already cancelled their plans to attend the conference, as has the head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment