By Canadian Press

Mnuchin says he will not attend Saudi investment conference

Oct 18, 2018 | 10:45 AM

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday he will not attend an investment conference in Saudi Arabia.

Mnuchin made the announcement on his Twitter account , saying that the decision was made after a White House meeting with President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Mnuchin said in his tweet, “I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Araba.”

His announcement comes after Pompeo told reporters at the White House that the administration would await the outcome of investigations by Saudi Arabia and Turkey into the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi before deciding how the U.S. will respond.

The Future Investment Initiative conference takes place Oct. 23-25 in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. It was set up last year as a kind of “Davos in the Desert” for the world’s business elite to network.

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Mnuchin joins a growing number of global leaders who have decided to pull out of the summit, including International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, as well as senior government officials from France, Britain and the Netherlands.

Martin Crutsinger, The Associated Press