French President Emmanuel Macron will address the “issue of human rights” during Thursday’s dinner in Paris with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohamed bin Salman, the Elysee said.
The President of the Republic will address the issue of human rights as he always does with Mohamed bin Salman. He will address (this topic) in a general way, but will take the opportunity to talk about individual cases, ”said the French Presidency (Elysée).
Salman’s visit to Paris has provoked violent criticism from human rights organizations, with two complaints filed with the French justice for “complicity in torture” and by “enforced disappearance“, both linked to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi against the Saudi crown prince.
The organization Democracy Now for the Arab World (DAWN) and the association Judgment International (TI, also in its acronym in English), point out in the 42-page complaint that Salman is “accomplice in the torture and forced disappearance” of the Saudi journalist. . found dead at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey on October 2, 2018.
Jamal Khashoggi, the journalist who disappeared without a trace: “The Saudi prince wants to get people like me out of his way”
Asked about the controversy generated by the visit of the Saudi crown prince to Paris, the first since Khashoggi’s death, the French Presidency reiterated that it continues to demand that those “responsible” for the assassination “be brought to justice.”
And he argued that the meeting between Macron and Mohamed bin Salman is necessary in view of the current international situationparticularly due to rising energy prices due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the food crisis in the Middle East and concerns about Iran’s nuclear programme.
In defense of Salman’s visit to France, the French Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, considered that the dinner at the Elysée Palace “does not call into question the commitment [francês] with human rights”.
“Obviously, it’s not about setting aside our principles, it’s not about questioning our commitment to human rights. The president of the Republic [Macron] I will certainly have the opportunity to discuss it with Mohammed bin Salman,” Borne said.
I don’t think the French would understand, in a context where we know that Russia is cutting off, threatening to cut off and cut off gas supplies, where there are tensions in energy prices, if we did not discuss with countries that are precisely energy producers. . This, of course, does not call into question the expectations that can be expressed about respect for human rights, ”he maintained.
The meeting is also seen as another support for the “rehabilitation” of Salmande facto leader of the Saudi kingdom, less than two weeks after the visit of the American president, Joe Biden, to Saudi Arabia, which definitively consecrated the return of the crown prince to the international scene, in a context of war in Ukraine and oil prices soaring energy.
Washington Post columnist, critic of Saudi power, Khashoggi was killed and quartered in October 2018 on the premises of the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul when he went there to obtain the necessary documents to get married.
The Saudi journalist called in particular for the dignity of the kingdom to be restored to end the cruel war in Yemen and denounced the new waves of arrests [na Arábia Saudita] after the enthronement of Salman”, recalled the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF), in a press release.
The US secret services have blamed Salman for the journalist’s murder, charges rejected by the crown prince, who has been banned from the international stage since the Istanbul incident.
US report confirms: Saudi crown prince approved of Jamal Khashoggi’s death, who was seen as a ‘threat’
On Tuesday, the Saudi crown prince visited Athens to strengthen bilateral cooperation in what was the first official visit to a European Union (EU) country since Khashoggi’s assassination.
The next day, Wednesday, the two countries signed agreements on shipping, energy, defense technology, waste management and culture.
Source: Observadora
