For his first visit to Europe since the 2018 assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman is invited to dine at the Élysée with Emmanuel Macron. A visit that has angered human rights defenders and in particular Yannick Jadot, the EELV MEP.
“On the dinner menu between Emmanuel Macron and MBS the dismembered body of journalist Khashoggi? Climate chaos? Peace and human rights? Overshoot day? Nope ! Oil and weapons! “The exact opposite of what to do!” “, denounced on Twitter the former environmental candidate for president.
NGOs are also standing up. “There was no reason to rehabilitate (him) this way, said this Thursday morning on France Inter the secretary general of Amnesty International, Agnès Callamard. We can negotiate things about oil, but we don’t need to rehabilitate a murderous prince. »
Reporters Without Borders, for its part, asks the French President in a press release “to intervene with Mohamed ben Salmane so that the 27 journalists currently detained in Saudi Arabia are released”.
Bergé pleads for the “necessity” of “dialogue”
This visit by Mohammed bin Salman comes after that of Emmanuel Macron in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in December. It also marks the return of the crown prince, who welcomed President Joe Biden to Saudi Arabia two weeks ago, on the international scene.
MBS had been banned by Western countries, following the 2018 murder of critical Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at his country’s consulate in Istanbul. It is true that the war in Ukraine and soaring energy prices have prompted Western countries to review their position by trying to get the world’s largest exporter of crude to accept to open the floodgates a little more in order to relieve the markets.
In this chorus of critics, Aurore Bergé, MP Renaissance pleads on the contrary for the “necessity” of “dialogue”. “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 energy issues. major ones that we have”, she launched on Franceinfo.
Before adding: “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 have the there is obviously a need to maintain a dialogue”.