TURKEY’S government has told US officials it has audio and video proof that missing Saudi Arabian writer Jamal Khashoggi was killed and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, the Washington Post reported on Friday.

The newspaper, for which Khashoggi is a columnist, cited anonymous officials as saying the recordings show a Saudi security team detained the writer when he went to the consulate on October 2 to pick up a document for his upcoming wedding. The Associated Press was not immediately able to confirm the report and Turkish officials would not comment.

Meanwhile, a delegation from Saudi Arabia arrived in Turkey on Friday as part of an investigation into the writer’s disappearance, a Foreign Ministry official said.

Saudi Arabia has called the allegation it abducted or harmed Khashoggi “baseless”.

However, it has offered no evidence to support its claim he left the consulate and vanished, despite his fiancee waiting outside.

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency said the delegation would hold talks with Turkish officials over the weekend. It did not provide further details.

On Thursday, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Turkey and Saudi Arabia would form a “joint working group” to look into Khashoggi’s disappearance.

In a statement posted on Twitter, Saudi Arabia welcomed Turkey’s approval of the joint working group. The Saudi statement said the kingdom is keen “to sustain the security and safety of its citizenry, wherever they might happen to be.”

US DEMANDS ANSWERS AS CALLS GROW FOR SANCTIONS
US President Donald Trump declared the US would uncover the truth about what happened and he would personally call Saudi Arabia’s King Salman soon about “the terrible situation in Turkey.”

“We’re going to find out what happened,” Trump pledged when questioned by reporters in Cincinnati where he was headlining a political rally.

Both Turkey and Saudi Arabia are important US allies in the region.

Trump said Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin will evaluate whether to attend a Saudi investor conference later this month. Mnuchin had indicated earlier on Friday he still planned to attend.

On Thursday, Trump had said US relations with Saudi Arabia were “excellent” and he was reluctant to scuttle highly lucrative US weapons deals with Riyadh.

A number of members of Congress have pressed the Trump administration to impose sanctions on the country in response to the Khashoggi affair.

MACRON AND MERKEL WEIGH IN
Amid growing concern over Khashoggi’s fate, French President Emmanuel Macron said France wanted to know “the whole truth” about the writer’s disappearance, calling the early details about the case “very worrying.”

Macron said “I’m waiting for the truth and complete clarity to be made” since the matter is “very serious.” He spoke Friday in Yerevan, Armenia, to French broadcasters RFI and France 24.

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said Berlin was also “very concerned” about the writer’s disappearance and called on Saudi Arabia to “participate fully” in clearing up reports that he may have been killed.

FIANCEE REVEALS WRITER’S LAST WORDS TO HER
The fiancee of the missing Saudi journalist on Friday urged US President Donald Trump to use his clout to find out what happened to her partner. Following a Turkish court’s decision to free American evangelical pastor, Trump tweeted: “Working very hard on Pastor (Andrew) Brunson!” That prompted Hatice Cengiz to ask about her missing fiancee. “What about Jamal Khashoggi?” she tweeted.

In an interview with The Associated Press Cengiz said Khasoggi was not nervous when he entered the Saudi consulate.

“He said, ‘See you later my darling,’ and went in,” she told the AP.

In written responses to questions by the AP, Cengiz said Turkish authorities had not told her about any recordings and Khashoggi was officially “still missing.” She said investigators were examining his cellphones, which he had left with her.

BUSINESS LEADERS REASSESS SAUDI DEALS
Global business leaders have begun reassessing their ties with Saudi Arabia, stoking pressure on the Gulf kingdom to explain what happened to Khashoggi.

British billionaire Richard Branson on Friday suspended business links with Saudi Arabia, and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said he might not attend a major investment conference in the country this month.

Khashoggi, a 59-year-old journalist who was considered close to the Saudi royal family, had become a critic of the current government and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the 33-year-old heir apparent who has introduced reforms but has shown little tolerance for criticism.

Khashoggi had been living in self-imposed exile in the United States since last year. As a contributor to the Washington Post, he has written extensively about Saudi Arabia, including criticism of its war in Yemen, its recent diplomatic spat with Canada and its arrest of women’s rights activists after the lifting of a ban on women driving.

Those policies are all seen as initiatives of the crown prince, who has also presided over a roundup of activists and businessmen.