French President Emmanuel Macron is hosting Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Paris on Thursday, defying criticism that the invitation is inappropriate barely four years after the murder by Saudi agents of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Khashoggi's fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, has told the French leader she is "shocked and outraged" by the meeting.
The meeting will be seen as the latest step in the readmission of the de-facto ruler of the kingdom into the international fold, after US President Joe Biden met the man universally known as MBS earlier this month.
The fiancée of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi has expressed outrage at French President Emmanuel Macron's decision to host Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for talks.
"I am scandalised and outraged that Emmanuel Macron is receiving with all the honours the executioner of my fiance, Jamal Khashoggi," Hatice Cengiz told the AFP news agency.
Macron's talks in Paris with the oil-rich kingdom's de facto ruler come as Western powers search for new sources of energy that rely less on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
Khashoggi was killed and dismembered after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to complete paperwork needed to allow him to marry Cengiz in October 2018.
A UN probe described Khashoggi's death as an "extrajudicial killing for which Saudi Arabia is responsible".
The Saudi crown prince has denied ordering Khashoggi's murder.
"The surge in energy prices because of the war in Ukraine cannot justify that -- in the name of alleged realpolitik -- we absolve the person responsible for Saudi policy towards political opponents," Cengiz said.
Russian gas, Iranian nuclear potential
The topics set to loom over the Macron meeting include energy supply as concern grows over possible power shortages due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as reining in the nuclear programme of Riyadh's top regional foe Iran.
MBS, as the prince is known, is portrayed at home as a champion of social and economic reform but is seen by critics as a murderous tyrant. He arrives in France fresh from a trip to Greece to discuss energy ties.
Greece and Saudi Arabia are also planning a data cable link worth a reported 800 million euros that would run under the Mediterranean Sea and be completed in 2025.
The Saudi Prince’s trip to Greece follows his meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, with US President Joe Biden, which was widely criticised by human rights activists.
Khashoggi who? What repression of critics? What killing of Yemeni civilians? Just keep pumping that oil and buying those arms, Macron signals in meeting with the Saudi crown prince. https://t.co/on6rfGjqXu
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) July 28, 2022
Criticism follows the prince on his European tour as well. "I feel profoundly troubled by the visit, because of what it means for our world and what is means for Jamal (Khashoggi) and people like him," Amnesty International secretary general Agnes Callamard told AFP, describing MBS as a man who "does not tolerate any dissent".
The visits mark MBS' first trip to the EU since the murder of Khashoggi by Saudi agents at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
US intelligence agencies determined that MBS had "approved" the operation that led to Khashoggi's death, though Riyadh denies this, blaming rogue operatives.
'Double standards'
The killing provoked outrage not just over the elimination of a prominent critic of the Saudi regime, but also for the manner in which it was carried out. Khashoggi was lured into the Saudi consulate on October 2, 2018, strangled and dismembered.
"The visit by MBS to France and Joe Biden to Saudi Arabia do not change the fact that MBS is anything other than a killer," said Callamard, who at the time of the killing was the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings and led the independent probe.
His reception by world leaders is "all the more shocking given many of them at the time expressed disgust (over the killing) and a commitment not to bring MBS back into the international community", she added, denouncing the "double standard".
But despite the concern over Saudi Arabia's rights record, the kingdom is seen by many in the West as an essential partner due to its energy resources, purchases of weaponry and staunch opposition to Iran's theocratic regime.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has made the oil and gas reserves of the kingdom all the more important for the West.
Callamard expressed concern that "values were being obliterated in the face of concern about the rising price of oil".
'Political leverage'
The French president travelled to the kingdom in December 2021 for talks with MBS, a visit that raised some eyebrows at the time.
MBS is in charge of the country's day-to-day business due to the ailing condition of his father, King Salman.
Macron will be meeting MBS fresh from talks with two close allies of the kingdom, UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi. The red carpet welcome for both leaders dismayed rights activists.
Macron will also be arriving from a three-nation tour of Africa, where he visited Cameroon, Benin and Guinea-Bissau, none of which is seen as an exemplary democracy.
After the recent fist-bump greeting from Biden that for many symbolised the West's re-acceptance of MBS, there will be huge interest in the body language between Macron and Prince Mohammed.
The talks are set to get under way late in the day, at 8:30 pm Paris time, and include a working dinner at the Elysée Palace. MBS reportedly arrived late Wednesday at a Paris airport and headed to a private residence outside the city.
"The war in Ukraine has put the energy-producing countries back in the spotlight, and they are taking advantage of it," said Camille Lons, research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
"This gives them political leverage that they will use to reassert their importance on the international stage," she added.
