French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday (July 28th) welcomed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed ben Salmane, invited for a working dinner at the Elysée Palace, with a long handshake, despite protests from human rights defenders.

Emmanuel Macron warmly greeted his host, for whom this is the first visit to Europe since the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi less than four years ago.

This meeting signs a little more the "rehabilitation" of the de facto leader of the kingdom, less than two weeks after the visit of American President Joe Biden to Saudi Arabia, which consecrated the return of the crown prince, nicknamed MBS, on the international scene, in a context of war in Ukraine and soaring energy prices.

In response to the anger of human rights defenders, the French presidency said Thursday that Emmanuel Macron would address the "question of human rights as he does each time with Mohammed bin Salman".

"He will approach (this question) in a general way but he will take the opportunity to talk about individual cases".

The Elysée said that this dinner was necessary, given the soaring energy prices, the food crisis in the Middle East and concerns about the Iranian nuclear program.

"If we want to confront each other, to tackle the consequences of these crises on the one hand and to weigh in the region for the benefit of all, the only way is to speak with all the main players", said the presidency. 

"MBS is none other than a killer"

On Thursday, a complaint for complicity in torture and enforced disappearance in connection with the assassination of Mr. Khashoggi was filed in Paris against the crown prince, announced the NGO Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), founded by the journalist. Saudi Arabia, and the Swiss NGO Trial International.

Hatice Cengiz, fiancée of Jamal Khashoggi, said she was "scandalized and outraged that Emmanuel Macron receives with all honors the executioner of my fiancé", in a message in French addressed to AFP.

"The visit of MBS to France and Joe Biden to Saudi Arabia does not change the fact that MBS is nothing but a killer," said Agnès Callamard, who led an investigation into the assassination by Saudi agents of Jamal Khashoggi when she was UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions.

02:21

Columnist for the Washington Post, critic of Saudi power, the journalist was killed and dismembered on October 2, 2018 in the premises of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul when he came to get the papers necessary for his marriage.

The American intelligence services had pointed the responsibility of the crown prince, who denies having ordered the assassination even if he says he bears the responsibility for it as a leader.

Hailed for his reforms, he is however criticized because of the repression carried out against dissidents in religious, political, intellectual, economic circles and even within the royal family.

With AFP

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