French President Emmanuel Macron received this Friday at the Élysée, for the second time in less than a year, the controversial Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohamed Bin Salman, known as MBS, at a key moment in the war in Ukraine, when the counteroffensive by Kiev has already started. Macron wants to involve the countries in the area more so that they align themselves with Ukraine. This has been the central theme of the meeting between the two, in which they have also addressed the problems that cloud stability in the region, especially in Iran and Lebanon, which has been without a president since October.

The meeting has been discreet, a “one-on-one meal”, without a statement, without a press conference or institutional statement. The objective was to “exchange bilateral perspectives and study the main regional problems and Ukraine”, the Elysee is limited to pointing out. Macron has underlined “how important the Ukraine issue is” because of the implications it has throughout the world and “how Saudi Arabia can exert its influence even in Russia,” the Presidency said.

European countries and the US are trying to influence countries that until now remained neutral with the war in Ukraine. Macron also wants to win allies to establish the bases of a hypothetical peace plan in which kyiv has guarantees. Last Monday, he already received the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the Polish President, Andrzej Duda, at the Élysée to discuss this matter.

Macron and MBS also addressed the situation in Lebanon, which is mired in a serious economic crisis and whose parliament has failed again this week in its attempt to elect a president. Saudi Arabia has influence in this country and Macron wants it to intercede to create “favorable conditions to elect the president.”

Another problem that threatens stability in the region is in Iran, a power aligned with Russia, a country to which it sells suicide drones. Riyadh and Tehran, who have always been rivals, have just now re-established diplomatic relations, after years of blockade. “We want to know the crown prince’s assessment of the intensity of the Iranian threat (…) and how he intends to address it with the Iranians,” the Elysee explained in statements to the AFP agency.

Macron has always cultivated relations with the controversial heir, aware that Riyadh’s role is key, despite human rights violations in the country. It is the second time that he has received him in less than a year and the first meeting was already very controversial and harshly criticized by the French opposition and by human rights organizations, as he was the first Western leader to meet with the heir after the assassination on 2018 by The Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

American intelligence believes that MBS ordered the death of the columnist, whose body was found at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul. By receiving him at the Élysée, the French president helped re-elegitimate his figure. On that occasion, the Government justified the visit by claiming that Europe needed to diversify its energy supply in the midst of a conflict with Russia.

The Saudi heir, who has several properties in France, including a castle in Louveciennes, near Paris, will stay in the country for several weeks and attend various events. Next week he will participate in the official reception to present Saudi’s candidacy for the 2030 World Expo, which Paris supports.

In addition, he will also go to the summit for a new financial pact organized by Emmanuel Macron next week and whose purpose is to raise financing to combat poverty and climate change. This event will bring together fifty heads of state, as well as environmental organizations.

Riyadh is one of the most repressive countries and humanitarian organizations have asked Macron to take advantage of the visit to pressure MBS to suspend the execution of seven young men sentenced to death in the country.

Amnesty International has called on the president to “use all his influence with the Saudi authorities to immediately stop executions and establish an official moratorium, as a first step towards the abolition of capital punishment,” the organization said. Remember that so far this year the country has executed 54 people for different crimes. In 2022 there were 196 people, triple that of the previous year.

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