German FM puts plan to visit Saudi Arabia on hold

German foreign minister has put on hold his plans to visit Saudi Arabia amid an ongoing investigation into the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Speaking at a news conference in Berlin, Heiko Maas urged Saudi Arabia to “fully cooperate” in the investigation and stressed that those bearing responsibility must be held to account.

“Regarding my travel plans […] we were actually considering a visit as part of our dialogue with Saudi Arabia. Now we would wait and see,” he said.

“The Saudi authorities have said they would make a statement. We would then decide whether a visit to Saudi Arabia would make sense at this point in time,” he added.

Khashoggi, a columnist for the Washington Post newspaper, has long been feared killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul after he entered on Oct. 2 and was never seen exiting.

On Monday, Turkish and Saudi officials searched the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul after the start of a joint probe into the missing journalist.

Saudi authorities have yet to give a clear explanation of what happened to Khashoggi, while several countries -- particularly Turkey, the U.S., and the U.K. -- are pressing for the mystery to be cleared up as soon as possible.