• French President Emmanuel Macron will meet Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Paris.
• The visit comes after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents.
• MBS is seen as a social and economic reform leader, but critics call him a murderous dictator.

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for talks in Paris on Thursday, despite complaints that the invitation is grossly inappropriate so soon after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents.

After US Vice President Joe Biden met with MBS earlier this month, this meeting will be seen as the next step in reintegrating the kingdom’s de facto ruler back into the international community.

Energy supplies, as anxiety increases over future power shortages owing to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and reining in the nuclear programme of Riyadh’s chief regional adversary, Iran, are expected to dominate the conference.

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After a trip to Greece, MBS heads to France to talk about energy ties. At home, he is seen as a social and economic reform leader, but his critics call him a murderous dictator.

“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 travels mark MBS’s first trip to the EU since the murder of Khashoggi by Saudi operatives at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul in 2018, a crime condemned by a United Nations investigation as an “extrajudicial killing for which Saudi Arabia is responsible”.

It stated there was “credible evidence” to investigate high-level Saudi officials, including MBS.

US intelligence services believe MBS “authorised” Khashoggi’s killing, while Riyadh blames rogue operators.

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