Saudi king meets UK foreign secretary in Riyadh

RIYADH (AA) – Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz held talks with British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt in Riyadh on Monday, according to the official SPA news agency.

The discussions tackled ways of boosting bilateral cooperation and regional development, SPA said, without giving any further details.

On Sunday, the Saudi monarch held talks with U.K. envoy Simon McDonald on bilateral ties between Riyadh and London.

McDonald’s visit was the first by a senior British official to Saudi Arabia since the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last month.

Khashoggi, a Saudi national and columnist for The Washington Post, was killed Oct. 2 inside the diplomatic facility.

After weeks of denying involvement, Saudi Arabia admitted that Khashoggi had been killed at the consulate but claimed the Saudi royal family had no prior knowledge of a plot to murder him.