It is his first visit to Europe since the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and leads through France: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman dined with Emmanuel Macron on Thursday, arousing the ire of human rights defenders.
This meeting is another sign of the “rehabilitation” of the kingdom’s de facto leader, less than two weeks after US President Joe Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia, which definitively inaugurated the return of “MBS” to the international scene . related to war in Ukraine and rising energy prices.
Mohammed ben Salmane, who had started his mini-European tour in Greece, arrived at Paris’ Orly airport on Wednesday evening, where he was greeted by French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, government sources said.
Heading to Africa, from where he will return on Thursday afternoon, President Emmanuel Macron MBS will be received a few hours later for a “working lunch” scheduled for 20.30 in Paris (18.30 GMT) at the Elysée, he told the French Presidency in a press release.
Mohammed bin Salman was ostracized by Western countries after the 2018 assassination of critical Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in his country’s consulate in Istanbul.
“Macron had already done most of the rehabilitation work by visiting MBS himself” in Riyadh last December, observes Quentin de Pimodan, an expert on the Sunni Kingdom at the Research Institute for European and American Studies, speaking to AFP.
“Pariah”
“But here we reach another level. He arrives in France, Macron is not there. MBS doesn’t use the tweezers at all anymore that he could have used a year or two ago. He moves as he pleases,” he continues.
And to confirm: “Macron started and Biden has completed the rehabilitation, now Johnson,” the future British ex-Prime Minister also visited Riyadh last March.
American intelligence had pointed to Mohammed bin Salman’s responsibility in the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, which had poisoned relations between Riyadh and Washington.
If the “fist bump” exchanged between the two men in Jeddah during Mr Biden’s visit sealed the American president’s return to his campaign promise to treat the kingdom as a “pariah,” it was the first MBS’ move inside the European Union goes down badly with human rights defenders.
“The visit of MBS to France and of Joe Biden to Saudi Arabia does not change the fact that MBS is nothing but a murderer,” Agnès Callamard, who was leading an investigation into the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, told AFP when she it was the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions.
And Human Rights Watch France director Bénédicte Jeannerod tweeted, “Despite the gruesome murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi authorities’ ruthless repression of any criticism, MBS can apparently count on Emmanuel Macron to have him on the ground.” international stage rehabilitated, war crimes in Yemen”.
His return to the favor of Western leaders was “all the more shocking because many of them at the time expressed their disgust (at the murder) and their commitment not to bring MBS back into the international community,” she added, condemning “two weights.” , two bars”.
“Pragmatism”
Because less than four years after the Khashoggi affair, Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine sparked a panic in energy prices.
Since then, Western countries have been trying to persuade Saudi Arabia, the top crude oil exporter, to open the floodgates to ease markets and limit inflation.
But Ryad is resisting pressure from his allies, citing his commitments to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+), the oil alliance it co-leads with Moscow.
In May, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud said the kingdom had done what it could for the oil market.
“The war in Ukraine has put energy-producing countries back in the spotlight, and they’re benefiting,” notes Camille Lons, associate researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “It gives them a political clout that they will use to reassert their importance on the international stage.”
As for Western countries, they compete with “pragmatism,” she notes. And in view of “exploding energy prices (…) human rights are obviously no longer a priority in Saudi Arabia”.