Four years after the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a government opponent whose murder was sponsored by Saudi Arabia in 2018, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman officially dines with Emmanuel Macron on Thursday. The crown prince, nicknamed “MBS”, is in full rehabilitation on the diplomatic scene. A return to favore the energy crisis and soaring prices caused by the war in Ukraine, while Saudi Arabia is one of the largest oil producers in the world. Two weeks after US President Joe Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman is dining at the Elysée on Thursday. A welcome with great fanfare has angered human rights defenders.
“Mohammed Bern Salman is nothing but a killer”, deplores a former UN special rapporteur on executions
Mohammed bin Salman, nicknamed “MBS”, had been ostracized by Western countries, following the 2018 killing of critical Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at his country’s consulate in Istanbul. The American intelligence services had pointed the responsibility of Mohammed ben Salmane in the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi.
Logically, the first move of MBS within the European Union goes badly among human rights defenders. “The visit of MBS to France and Joe Biden to Saudi Arabia does not change the fact that MBS is nothing but a killer”, deplored to AFP Agnès Callamard, who had led an investigation into the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi when she was UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions.
And the director for France of Human Rights Watch, Benedicte Jeannerodtackled on Twitter: “MBS can apparently count on Emmanuel Macron to rehabilitate him on the international stage despite the atrocious murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi authorities’ ruthless crackdown on any criticism, the war crimes in Yemen”.
His return to favor with Western heads of state is “all the more shocking as many of them at the time expressed their disgust (for the murder) and their commitment not to bring MBS back into the international community”, she added, denouncing “Two weights, two measures”.
Former EELV presidential candidate Yannick Jadot also denounced this official visit. “On the dinner menu between Emmanuel Macron and MBS the dismembered body of journalist Khashoggi? Climate chaos? Peace and human rights? Overshoot day? No! Oil and weapons! The exact opposite of what he must do !”, he denounced on Twitter.
Saudi Arabia, which has become essential with the energy crisis
But less than four years after the Khashoggi affair, theRussia’s invasion of Ukraine caused energy prices to spike. Western countries are in fact trying to convince Saudi Arabia, the leading exporter of crude oil, to open the floodgates to relieve the markets and limit inflation.
“I believe it is important for the President of the French Republic to be able to receive a certain number of those who are de facto his interlocutors, all the more so in the context that we know, linked to the Ukrainian crisis and the issues major energy sources that we have”, defended on franceinfo Aurore Bergé, the leader of the Renaissance deputies (ex-LREM). “Discussing with all the Gulf countries seems to me an absolute necessity, that does not mean that you are forgetting the subjects which are essential in terms of values and human rights, but you obviously have the need to maintain a dialogue”, she added.
“Saudi Arabia is essential and is even more so today with the Ukrainian crisis”, judged this Thursday on franceinfo Georges Malbrunot, great reporter for Le Figaro and specialist in the Middle East. “Westerners need Saudi Arabia, a major oil exporting and producing country, to increase its production,” he explained. But “we risk being disappointed because Saudi Arabia is bound by certain commitments made within the framework of OPEC, in which Vladimir Putin’s Russia is located and with which Saudi Arabia has good relations”, says the journalist.
Above all, Saudi Arabia has not invested enough in its oil production structures in recent years to be able to increase its production from 10 million barrels per day to 13 million. assures Georges Malbrunot.
We cannot curl up in our ivory tower and say that in the name of values, we do not receive this gentleman – George Malbrunot
According to the journalist, this meeting is “cold realpolitik”, becausedespite the questions it raises on the issue of human rights, Saudi Arabia is “essential given its oil and financial weight”. “This is a country that will be ruled by Mohammed bin Salman for 40 years. He is someone who will leave his mark on the Middle East for three decades. You cannot curl up in your ivory tower and say that in the name of values, we do not receive this gentleman”, Judge Georges Malbrunot.