French President Emmanuel Macron was yesterday to host Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) for talks in Paris, seeking to nudge the de facto leader of the oil-rich kingdom into more support of Ukraine against the Russian invasion.
The visit of the 37-year-old, widely known as “MBS,” comes less than a year after his last visit to the Elysee Palace, and underlines the warm relationship between Paris and Riyadh that has irked rights activists in the wake of the 2018 killing of Saudi Arabian critic Jamal Khashoggi.
Over lunch at the Elysee Palace, Macron was expected to seek support from MBS to find a solution in the search for a new president in Lebanon, a stalemate that is causing increasing exasperation for France.
Photo: Reuters
His stay in France appears set to be a long one, with MBS due to attend a Paris summit on a New Global Financing Pact hosted by Macron on Thursday and Friday next week.
On Monday, he is expected to attend an official Saudi reception for Riyadh’s candidacy to host Expo 2030, a bid for which Saudi Arabia wants strong French support.
MBS can reside comfortably in France, given that he owns the opulent Chateau Louis XIV near Versailles outside Paris, a modern building that seeks to replicate the look of French imperial palaces.
A French presidential official, who asked not to be named, said that Paris wanted MBS to understand the scale of the Ukraine conflict and “help us speed up the final outcome of the war, which means a victory for Ukraine on the ground.”
“We are going to tell him how important the Ukraine issue is and how Saudi Arabia can exert influence, including on Russia,” the official said.
Saudi Arabia has maintained a cautious stance throughout Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, stopping short of condemning the assault while emphasizing the importance of Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
MBS hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, last month during an Arab League summit.
It was Zelenskiy’s first visit to the Middle East since the invasion began, and MBS won his praise for supporting Ukraine’s “territorial integrity.”
However, Saudi Arabia retains close ties to Russia, particularly through Moscow’s involvement in the expanded OPEC+ format of the oil cartel that includes 10 non-OPEC members.
Macron was likely to encourage MBS to use Saudi Arabia’s influence among the Sunni community in Lebanon to break the deadlock that has seen the country repeatedly fail to choose a new president.
Macron last month named former French minister of Europe and foreign affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian as his personal envoy for Lebanon in a new bid to end the political crisis.
Saudi Arabia and its regional rival Iran are also in the throes of an unexpected rapprochement — brokered by Beijing — that has caused huge interest among Western governments still seeking to revive a 2015 deal on the Iranian nuclear program.
“In Saudi Arabia’s normalization with Iran, there is potential for easing tensions in the region,” the French official said, adding that France hopes a smooth path can be formed to elect a Lebanese president.
However, despite championing rapid economic and political reform, a shadow remains cast over by the case of Khashoggi, who was killed and dismembered inside the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
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