French President Emmanuel Macron received on Thursday (28) Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is on a tour of Europe to try to break the isolation imposed on him after accusations of disrespect for human rights and of being the mastermind of the journalist’s murder. Jamal Khashoggi.
Western countries have sought the successor to the throne of Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s biggest oil producers, amid the Ukrainian War and rising energy prices. The visit to Paris comes two weeks after US President Joe Biden’s trip to the Middle Eastern country; months earlier, Boris Johnson, the current prime minister of the United Kingdom, made the same move.
The decision to host MbS, as the prince is known, at the Élysée Palace, seat of the French government, earned Macron criticism from human rights organizations and the opposition.
The secretary general of the NGO Amnesty International, Agnès Callamard, wrote on Twitter that the end of the prince’s isolation will be justified in France and the US “with arguments from ‘realpolitik'”, a reference to the need for Western powers to lower fuel prices. after inflation rose sharply due to the conflict in Eastern Europe. “But in fact it is the bargain that prevails.”
After the invasion of Ukraine, countries opposed to Moscow, a major energy exporter, sought to diversify their sources, urging Riyadh to increase oil production to stop its dependence on Russian gas. Saudi Arabia, however, resists the pressure, arguing that it strictly follows the commitments made with OPEC+ (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries), led by the Kremlin.
Olivier Véran, a spokesman for the French government, played down NGOs’ concerns around the visit, saying that Macron would not set aside his country’s values ​​in talks with the Saudi leader, but that they “would be held back while the government works to guarantee oil for the whole world”.
Sources at the Élysée say the French president will raise the human rights issue with the prince, “as he always does with Mohammed bin Salman”. According to one of his aides, Macron “will speak [sobre o tema] generally speaking, but will take the opportunity to raise individual cases”.
The speech is similar to that of Biden, who said he confronted the Saudi at a meeting the two had in Jeddah. “I have said very frankly that an American president being silent on a human rights issue is inconsistent with who we are and who I am,” he said.
The murder of Khashoggi, a columnist for the American newspaper The Washington Post, at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul has sparked international fury. US intelligence concluded that MbS had directly approved the assassination – the prince denies any involvement in the crime.
Democracy for the Arab World Now, Open Society Justice Initiative and Trial said on Thursday they had filed a new complaint asking French authorities to open an investigation into the case. The UN called the episode an “extrajudicial murder for which Saudi Arabia is responsible”.
“MbS’s visit to France or Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia does not change the fact that he is a murderer,” said Callamard, who was also a UN special rapporteur and investigated the crime.
Macron, who visited Saudi Arabia in December, said the country was too important to be ignored on the international stage.
The Saudi prince, who began his tour of Greece on Tuesday, arrived in Paris on Wednesday night and was greeted by Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire. Callamard denounced a double standard with the reception, as, she recalled, many leaders expressed condemnation of the murder and pledged not to integrate MbS into the international community.
The Brazilian Jair Bolsonaro (PL), who went to Riyadh in 2019, tries to make a MbS visit to BrasÃlia possible. Travel plans have already been suspended at least twice.
