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France: Macron to discuss human rights with Mohammed bin Salman

French President Emmanuel Macron will discuss “the issue of human rights” during dinner with Mohammed bin Salman tonight, the French presidency has announced, as the Saudi crown prince’s visit angers campaigners. of human rights.

“The president of the Republic will discuss the issue of human rights as he does every time with Mohammed bin Salman. He will consider (this issue) in general but will take advantage to talk about specific cases,” said the Elysée.

Macron is hosting the Saudi prince today amid growing Western efforts to woo the oil-rich state amid the war in Ukraine and faltering talks to revive the Iran nuclear deal.

Opposition figures and human rights groups criticized Macron’s decision to invite to a dinner at the Elysee the man Western leaders believe ordered the 2018 killing of prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Asked about the heated debate over the first visit to France by Mohammed bin Salman (known as “MBS”) since Khashoggi’s assassination by Saudi agents, the French presidency reiterated its demand that those “responsible” for the assassination be “tried” of this one.

However, the Elysée said the dinner was necessary, given the rise in energy prices due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the food crisis in the Middle East and concerns over Iran’s nuclear program.

“If we want to face each other, deal with the consequences of these crises and have an influence in the region for the benefit of all, the only way is to talk to all the main actors,” the French presidency estimates.

Macron is hosting “MBS” for dinner tonight, a visit that has angered human rights defenders.

The meeting between the French head of state and the Saudi crown prince, which follows Macron’s visit to Jeddah in December, marks the “rehabilitation” of the kingdom’s de facto leader, less than two weeks after the US president’s visit to Saudi Arabia, which definitively validated the prince’s return to the international scene.

The prince had been isolated from Western countries since the brutal 2018 assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. A columnist for the Washington Post newspaper, a critic of the government in Saudi Arabia, the journalist was murdered and dismembered on October 2, 2018 at the offices of the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul while he had gone to get the necessary papers for his marriage. His body was never found.

Source: RES-MPE

Source: Capital

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