Saudi Arabia is weighing whether to say that rogue operatives killed a Saudi dissident journalist, people familiar with the matter said, a position that would help the royal family exonerate itself from direct responsibility for a matter that has roiled its relations with the U.S.
The kingdom’s tentative explanation echoes comments President Trump made Monday, after speaking to Saudi King Salman, that “rogue killers” may have been behind the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, a former royal insider.
It’s unclear if and when the Saudi statement would be released, and its content hasn’t been finalized, the people familiar with the matter said. Saudi government spokespeople didn’t respond to request for comment.
Turkish authorities allege that Mr. Khashoggi was killed by Saudi agents after he entered the consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 to handle a paperwork matter. The Turkish government has shared with U.S. officials what it describes as audio and video recordings purporting to show that Mr. Khashoggi was killed in the building, according to people familiar with the matter.
Saudi Arabia has denied the accusation and said Mr. Khashoggi left the consulate alive, soon after arriving.
Mr. Trump said he had a 20-minute phone call early Monday with King Salman, who “firmly denied any knowledge” of what happened to the missing journalist. The president suggested Saudi agents could have been operating without the Saudi government’s knowledge.
“It sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers,” Mr. Trump said.
The president said he had dispatched Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Saudi Arabia—to meet the king—and “other places if necessary,” including Turkey.
“We are going to leave nothing uncovered,” Mr. Trump said. The State Department said Monday that Mr. Trump had called for a “prompt and open investigation” into Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance.
Mr. Pompeo left Washington en route to Riyadh at midday Monday.
Mr. Trump also said King Salman had assured him that Saudi Arabia and Turkey were “working hand in hand, very closely on getting to the bottom of what happened.”
The 82-year-old King Salman is the ruler of Saudi Arabia. But his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is effectively the country’s day-to-day leader, and has overseen a succession of recent campaigns targeting perceived dissidents at home and abroad.
Suspicion that Saudi Arabia played a role in the journalist’s disappearance has led a growing list of Western executives and advisers to announce they were pulling out of a premier three-day conference set to start in Riyadh on Oct. 23.
The chief executive of JPMorgan Chase & Co., James Dimon, is one of the prominent executives to back out. Mr. Dimon had been a featured speaker, and his bank has longstanding ties to Saudi Arabia and is advising it on deals.
Mr. Dimon’s decision was joined by two other Wall Street titans: Laurence Fink, chief executive of the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock Inc.; and Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of private-equity giant Blackstone Group, according to people familiar with the matter.
The disappearance of Mr. Khashoggi has frayed relations between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia and has tested the Trump administration’s efforts to make the kingdom the linchpin of its Middle East policy.
Mr. Trump’s decision to dispatch his secretary of state came as both Saudi Arabia and Turkey sent signals they were seeking to avoid direct confrontation over an incident that has drawn widespread international concern.
Despite their denial, Saudi authorities have begun acting on evidence supplied by Turkey, launching their own probe to determine whether the kingdom played a role in Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance, people familiar with the matter said Monday.
The probe, which was ordered by King Salman, will be conducted by the Saudi public prosecutor, the people said.
Probe results could be announced within days, and lead to some Saudi individuals being held accountable for Mr. Khashoggi’s death, one of the people said.
Meantime, Turkish authorities said they had reached an agreement with Saudi Arabia to search the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul for the missing journalist. Turkish television showed a group of investigators entering the building at 7:30 p.m. local time, saying the inspection would drag out late into the night.
Turkish officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said police had gathered evidence that Mr. Khashoggi was killed and his body dismembered by a team of 15 operatives dispatched from Riyadh. But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stopped short of accusing the kingdom of his murder.
Turkish authorities suspect Crown Prince Mohammed had a hand in Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance because the alleged team of operatives they say killed the journalist comprised Saudi government officials and intelligence officers who flew to Istanbul on corporate jets controlled by the crown prince.
Saudi Arabia first pledged it would open the consulate doors to Turkish police several days after Mr. Khashoggi vanished. Since then, however, Saudi and Turkish officials argued over how thoroughly Turkish investigators would be allowed to inspect the diplomatic compound.
“We wanted to come in with all the chemicals and equipment investigators use to inspect crime scenes,” the official said. “The Saudis said we could only get a brief tour.”
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The official said he expected Monday’s search would be conducted on Turkey’s terms and amount to a full inspection.
It comes a day after Mr. Erdogan spoke about Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance with King Salman. The phone call, during which King Salman thanked the Turkish president for agreeing to set up a joint Saudi-Turkish team to investigate what happened, was the firstdirect contact between the two leaders since the journalist went missing.
Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Washington, Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, left the U.S. last week to report back to Riyadh, the State Department said, adding the U.S. requested that he return with answers to questions about Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance.
--Summer Said and Margherita Stancati contributed to this article.
Write to Rebecca Ballhaus at Rebecca.Ballhaus@wsj.com and David Gauthier-Villars at David.Gauthier-Villars@wsj.com
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