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Fillon Refuses to Meet Saudi Salman

Fillon Refuses to Meet Saudi Salman
folder_openMiddle East... access_time7 years ago
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Local Editor

French newspaper "Le Figaro" stressed Monday that the Right "Republican" presidential candidate Francois Fillon rejected last week a request to meet in Paris the son of Saudi King and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz.

Fillon Refuses to Meet Saudi Salman

The paper cited someone close to Fillon's as saying: "We indeed received several requests to meet Francoise Fillon, but we still didn't reply yet."

The French newspaper further noted that the Saudi prince remained in Paris for several other days hoping that the meeting with Fillon would be held. For their part, Saudi sources mentioned that Fillon didn't show positivity to hold the meeting.

Meanwhile, Saudi authorities are embarrassed as they previously supported Fillon's rival in the primaries of the right and the center-right, Alain Jupeé, the newspaper said.

Earlier in October 2016, Fillon announced that "Saudi Arabia is definitely not our ally."

In general, Fillon's speeches hold Saudi Arabia responsible for the extension of extremist version of Islam in the world, mainly in France. In addition, the Saudis fear that in case Fillon won the elections, he would name Bruno Le Maire as Foreign Minister, who, in turn, doesn't keep secret his will to review French-Gulf ties, especially with Saudi Arabia.

Fillon and Le Maire announced their will to balance ties with Gulf countries in favor of Iran's interests, to contain Iran and normalize relations with it.

According to Le Figaro, Saudi Arabia is considered a strategic ally for France in the current rule of President Francois Hollande. They have the same orientation and stances toward Middle Eastern policies, especially regarding the Syrian issue.

However, a Saudi observer specialized in European affairs told the newspaper on the issue of making the prince wait for several days to meet with Fillon: Things in the past used to happen the other way, Saudi officials used to make their French counterparts wait for several hours before they finally meet them.

Source: Le Figaro, Translated and Edited by website team

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