BEN SALMANE. The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia is received by Emmanuel Macron this Thursday. Banished by the international community, he nevertheless becomes an interlocutor again, in particular because of the price of oil.
It is a partner for the least cumbersome with which Emmanuel Macron must compose. This Thursday, July 28, the President of the Republic receives Mohammed Ben Salmane, Prince of Saudi Arabia, decried because of the authoritarian regime in place in this Gulf country. No matter, it is at the Elysée that the Head of State will dine with his guest for one evening, he who has not been to France for four years. Since then, it is an understatement to say that relations have become strained between the two leaders: in question, the assassination by the Saudi regime of a journalist a few months after the arrival in Paris of the crown prince, but also the links which unite the which is nicknamed “MBS” with Russia, even more so since the start of the war in Ukraine. However, Emmanuel Macron tries to maintain a channel of discussion with the number 2 of the Saudi regime, in particular because of the surge in oil prices. But it shouldn’t be the only topic discussed during the meal.
A Macron-Ben Salman dinner to lower the price of oil?
Between the opaque and deaf walls of the Elysée, Emmanuel Macron and Mohammed Ben Salmane should talk about oil. Because the price of energy, and in particular of fuel, is the main subject in the news, prices at the pump having exploded since the start of the war in Ukraine, a consequence of the sanctions imposed on Russia which launched the offensive. During this meeting, the President of the Republic should try to convince the Saudi prince to increase oil production in order to compensate for the lack of Russian oil. According The Parisian, the European Union and the United States are pushing for an increase in Saudi production of 2 to 3 million barrels of oil, or 159 million liters of additional oil. Enough to create, after transformation, 74 million liters of gasoline and 35 million diesel.
However, Saudi Arabia would not be willing to open its black gold taps any further. And for good reason: it runs the Organization of Petroleum Producing Countries with Russia and does not support the sanctions imposed on Vladimir Putin. Will Emmanuel Macron be able to convince him? What will the President of the Republic put in the balance? Above all, does he not risk being handicapped by his positions against Mohammed Ben Salman?
Saudi Arabia sanctioned by Macron in 2018
Because in 2018, Emmanuel Macron had widely commented on the death of the Saudi journalist Jamak Khashoggi, assassinated at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Turkey and attributed to the regime of Ben Salman, who would have validated it, according to the CIA. Benjamin Griveaux, then government spokesperson at this time, had estimated that “in the event that the responsibility of Saudi Arabia is proven, then we will draw the consequences and we will take sanctions.” France then sanctioned 18 people linked to the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In December 2021, during a first meeting between Mohammed Ben Salmane and Emmanuel Macron, the French President had assumed dialogue with the Saudi regime: “that does not mean that I endorse, that I forget, that we are not demanding partners.”