Saudi prince begins European tour in Paris amid pressure over France arms sales
Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrived in Paris on Sunday amid pressure being mounted on President Emmanuel Macron to scale back military support for Saudis in its war with Yemen. The prince arrived in the French capital at the start of a European tour that also includes Spain, Al Arabiya TV said.
Prince Mohammed, who is also the Saudi defense minister and one of the kingdom’s most powerful policymakers, is due to meet President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
Prince Mohammed just completed a three-week visit to the United States. Pressure has been mounting on President Macron to scale back military support for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which are leading the coalition fighting Yemen.
Ahead of his two-day stay in Paris, a lawmaker in Macron’s party had officially asked for a parliamentary investigation into the legality of French weapons sales to the Saudi-led coalition.
Lawmaker Sebastien Nadot said on Thursday he and 15 other co-signatories had officially filed a request for a commission of inquiry.
The inquiry asks for a 30-member commission “to study France’s compliance with international commitments regarding arms export licenses, munitions, training, services and assistance that our country has granted during these three years to the belligerents of the conflict in Yemen”.
Ten human rights organizations also have asked Macron to demand that Saudi Arabia end the airstrikes and lift a blockade aggravating the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
Seventy-five percent of French people want Macron to suspend arms exports to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, a Yougov poll found. Several rights groups also have warned of possible legal action if the government does not halt its sales.
France is the world’s third biggest arms exporter and counts the two countries among its biggest purchasers.
In a briefing ahead of Prince Mohammed’s visit, the French presidency defended its export procedures.
“There is a very strict control of arms exports ... which obeys very precise criteria, including the concern for situations in which civilian populations may be endangered,” a French presidential source said.
The Saudi-led war was launched in March 2015 in support of Yemen’s former Riyadh-friendly government and against the country’s Houthi Ansarullah movement.
The Saudi-led campaign, which is accompanied by a land, aerial and naval blockade of Yemen, has so far killed more than 13,600 people, displaced more than 3 million and led to a humanitarian crisis.
Unlike many of its allies, French export licensing procedures have no parliamentary checks or balances. They are approved through a committee headed by the prime minister that includes the foreign, defense and economy ministries.