Britain and the US are considering boycotting a major international conference in Saudi Arabia after the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to the BBC.
Mr. Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi government, vanished on 2 October after visiting its consulate in Istanbul.
The authorities in Istanbul believe he was murdered there by Saudi agents – claims Riyadh has dismissed as “lies”.
A number of sponsors and media groups have decided to pull out of this month’s investment conference in Riyadh, dubbed Davos in the Desert, as a result of concerns over Mr. Khashoggi’s fate.
Diplomatic sources have now told the BBC that both the US Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, and the UK’s International Trade Secretary, Liam Fox, might not attend the event, which is being hosted by the kingdom’s Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman to promote his reform agenda.
A spokesman for the UK’s international trade department said Dr Fox’s diary was not yet finalised for the week of the conference.
A joint statement of condemnation, if it is confirmed that Mr. Khashoggi was killed by Saudi agents, is also being discussed by US and European diplomats.
However, Mr. Khashoggi’s fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, has said words alone will not be good enough if he has been murdered.
“If we have already lost Jamal, then condemnation is not enough,” she wrote in a piece for the New York Times. “The people who took him from us, irrespective of their political positions, must be held accountable and punished to the full extent of the law.”
She added that Saturday had been “Jamal’s birthday”.
“When your loved one leaves this world, the other world no longer seemed scary or far away. It is being left here all alone, without them, that is most painful.”
President Donald Trump has said the US will inflict “severe punishment” on Saudi Arabia if the kingdom is found to be responsible for the death of Mr. Khashoggi.
He said he would be “very upset and angry if that were the case”, but ruled out halting big military contracts.
“I think we’d be punishing ourselves if we did that,” he said. “If they don’t buy it from us, they’re going to buy it from Russia or… China.”
Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevut Cavusoglu, said Saudi Arabia was not yet co-operating with the investigation – despite a statement from Saudi Interior Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Naif bin Abdulaziz saying they wanted to uncover “the whole truth”.
Storm Leslie: Portugal hit by hurricane-force winds
Hurricane-force winds have brought down hundreds of trees and left more than 15,000 homes without power in Portugal.
The remnants of Hurricane Leslie swept into the centre and north of the country overnight on Saturday.
There have been no reports of deaths or injuries, but officials have warned people not to venture outdoors, and a number of flights have been cancelled.
The storm, one of the most powerful to ever hit the country, is now heading over northern Spain.
Wind speeds of up to 176km/h (109mph) were recorded after the storm struck the mainland.
It is rare for an Atlantic hurricane to reach the Iberian Peninsula, and it is thought this could be the most powerful to hit Portugal since 1842.
However, Hurricane Leslie, which formed on 23 September, was downgraded to a tropical storm before it made landfall.
Portugal’s civil protection chief Luis Belo Costa warned of possible flooding in coastal areas ahead of the storm’s arrival.
