Khashoggi case: French multinationals refuse to boycott the Saudi regime







Last year, the bosses of the big multinationals flocked to the first economic forum organized by Saudi Arabia, nicknamed the “Davos of the Desert”. This year, defections followed one another following the alleged murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by agents of the Saudi regime in Turkey. Google, EDF, Siemens or Ford, the banks JP Morgan, HSBC, BNP Paris, Goldman Sachs, the investment fund BlackRock, or even the raw material extraction giant Glencore and So many companies whose leaders have announced that they will not go to Riyadh for the event that opened on October 23. The finance and technology sectors are particularly concerned. Several heads of government also stated that they were cancelling their participation. Among the companies that resisted the boycott calls were those in the armaments and oil sector, including the French Total.

Saving ethical appearances without cutting economic ties

The international outcry over Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance and the stigmatization of the Saudi regime and its Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, while justified, contrast with the relative indifference to human rights abuses or repression of opponents by many other governments around the world. But especially with the war crimes and crimes against humanity that Saudi Arabia has been accused of for several years in the war in Yemen, This international outcry is a reminder of the outbursts of outrage and calls for boycotts over Donald Trump’s policy in the United States – a trend whose political and economic ties with the Saudi royal family are also being questioned.

This disaffection does not mean that all these companies, which have been quick to save ethical appearances, have severed their economic ties with the Saudi regime. This is true for the arms and energy sectors, of which the kingdom is an important customer and partner. Some political leaders have timidly raised the possibility of stopping arms deliveries to the Saudi coalition, but their calls have not been well received so far. This is also true, more discreetly, for the technology sector. Silicon Valley has traditionally been concerned about preserving its positive and harmless image, but the Saudi kingdom has invested heavily in firms such as Uber or Tesla in recent years.

As Libération notes, several of the French multinationals whose leaders have cancelled their orders will nevertheless send a delegation to Riyadh. Some French CEOs have also refused to respond to the call for a boycott, such as Sébastien Bazin of AccorHotels, which is currently negotiating major contracts in Saudi Arabia, or Patrick Pouyanné, CEO of Total. The latter indicated that his company had “never been in favour of sanctions and isolation measures” (see the Multinational Observatory’s survey on Russia and Iran) and that he wished to visit Riyadh “out of loyalty”.

In recent years, Total has made significant investments in Saudi Arabia, including the construction of the giant Jubail refinery, at a time when the company was closing the Dunkirk refinery in France. A few months ago, Total and its Saudi partners announced the construction of a huge petrochemical complex near the site.







