The French President Francois Hollande is expected Monday to Qatar to attend the official signing of the Rafale sale agreement before joining Riyadh Tuesday where he will be the guest of honor of a summit of the Cooperation Council of States Arab Gulf (GCC), a first for a Western head of state.
Shortly after his arrival, Francois Hollande will hold talks with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, to evoke, besides the Rafale, the multiple crises in the region, starting with the war in Yemen. The French head of state, accompanied by the ministers of foreign affairs and defense, Laurent Fabius and Jean-Yves Le Drian, must then attend the official signing of two contracts. The first concluded by the State of Qatar with industry – Dassault Aviation, maker of the Rafale and the European missile manufacturer MBDA that provides weapons – will formalize the sale of 24 Rafale small emirate, six two-seater and 18 single-seater version for 6.3 billion euros. And the second, confidential, will be an intergovernmental agreement on the training of drivers 36 and a hundred engineers, but also other issues such as education of intelligence officers. Device “multirole”, the Rafale is also a reconnaissance aircraft equipped with powerful means of observation.
The French president will fly in the afternoon to Saudi Arabia, where he s’ meet in the evening with the king Salman. Francois Hollande will be the first Western head of state received in Riyadh since the vast reshuffle announced Wednesday at the head of the kingdom, the world’s crude exporter. The king Salman has made one of his nephews, Mohammed bin Nayef, the new crown prince, and one of his son, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the future crown prince, second in line of succession, while the current Saudi ambassador in Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, takes responsibility for the diplomacy of his country.
A joint statement Franco Saudi on a “road map” political, economic, strategic and military will be signed during this visit, says one at the Elysee. Tuesday morning, Francois Hollande also expected to meet with former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri. Then he will host an extraordinary summit of the GCC which brings together Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, Oman, Kuwait and Qatar.
For the agenda of the meeting: the nuclear program of Iran, big rival Shiite Sunni monarchies of the Gulf, the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq group and Syria and Yemen. With the exception of Oman, all Gulf states are involved in the coalition conducting since March 26 airstrikes in Yemen led Riyadh to prevent a Shiite rebellion to take control of all of the country bordering Saudi Arabia.
Host GCC, French President burns somewhat polite to his US counterpart Barack Obama, who will receive its leaders in mid-May at the White House and Camp David in an attempt to reassure them about the framework agreement concluded in early April with Iran about its nuclear program, suspected by the West of concealing military purposes.
The visit of Francois Hollande, adds his entourage, is likely to “be part of a possible new era” If this framework agreement leading to a final agreement in late June with Tehran. Saudi Arabia is also very distrustful of Iran, fearing that this country does not encourage nuclear proliferation in the region. She also accused Tehran of supporting the Houthi Shiite rebels in Yemen.
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