The America president Donald Trump is regularly mocked for his inconsistent attitude towards the Khashoggi affair, over which he goes to great lengths to deny the evidence to shield Saudi Arabia from the repercussions of the brutal murder of the Saudi journalist. But questions must be raised, too, over France's own stance and in particular that of its foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. On November 12th, 2018, Le Drian said in relation to the disappearance and presumed murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul: “For the moment I am not aware of [information passed on by Turkey]. If the Turkish president [Recep Tayyip Erdogan] has information to give us, then he should give it to us.”
The French foreign minister was making reference in particular to audio recordings of the dismemberment of the exiled journalist's body by a Saudi unit within their own consulate. Yet seven French diplomats and intelligence agents have confirmed to Mediapart that France's Ministry of Foreign Affairs did indeed have access, and at the highest level, to those recordings at the time the minister spoke.
Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi regime who lived in self-imposed exile in the Unites States where he wrote a monthly column in The Washington Post, went missing after going into the Saudi consulate on October 2nd to collect some administrative papers. From October 6th the Turkish authorities started to feed information via the local and foreign press indicating that the journalist was killed inside the consulate building. Over the course of the following days the Turkish police and government gave out more and more evidence of the actions carried out by a Saudi hit squad that was was made up of individuals close to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The claims were that the squad interrogated, tortured and killed the journalist, then cut up his body and hid the body parts before they made their return to Riyadh.
Then on October 11th, Ankara let it be known that it possessed an audio recording of what went on inside the consulate, a tape which left no room for doubt about the involvement of the Saudis. At the same time the Saudi authorities fiercely continued to deny any involvement in the journalist's disappearance. It was not until October 20th that Riyadh claimed Jamal Khashoggi had died “accidentally” after a fight, and it was only on October 25th that Saudi's public prosecutor spoke of the journalist's death as “premeditated”.
“From the start the Turks knew what had happened in this diplomatic compound, but they didn't think that the Saudis were going to have to deny it with so much nerve,” says one French diplomat familiar with the region. “They didn't want to reveal the existence of the audio recording because that established the fact that Ankara is spying within the walls of foreign delegations, which is of course an open secret but, even so, it's embarrassing to have to acknowledge it.”
On October 22nd, the head of the CIA, Gina Haspel, went to Turkey where she listened to the recording. Around about the same time Ankara decided to share this recording with the intelligence services of friendly countries. On November 10th, President Erdogan confirmed that it was sent to the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Canada. The Turkish head of state was clearly seeking to gain advantage form the situation: he wants to destabilise and weaken Saudi Arabia whom Turkey sees as a rival in the 'Great Game' of Middle Eastern politics. All Western governments were aware of what Ankara's broader strategy was. But it does not undermine the validity of the information provided by Turkey or the responsibly of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the only Saudi leader who would have been able to order such a murder.
Yet on November 12th, Yves Le Drian, who has shown great timidity over the affair since the start (see in French here), told France 2 television that he had not been aware of the recording. “If the Turkish president has information to give us, then he should give it to us,” said Le Drian, who observed that President Erdogan was playing a “particular political game on this occasion”. On the same day the Turkish authorities said they found the French foreign minister's comments “unacceptable” and repeated that they had indeed sent Paris “the proof” concerning Khashoggi's murder.
“When Le Drian made that declaration we immediately felt that it was an enormous mistake,” says one official who works at France's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Obviously we had the recordings, it was absurd to deny to but it's very revealing about our relationship with Mohammed bin Salman. The minister is prepared to take the risk of speaking an enormous whopper just to give him cover.” A second very well-informed source insists: “Paris had the Turkish information, including the audio file, from the second week of October.”
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Over in Turkey two French diplomats justify their boss's stance while at the same time admitting that the information had been circulated. The first diplomat told Mediapart that “the relevant French and Turkish authorities have been in contact from the start to establish the full truth of this affair. That isn't just down to the issue of audio recordings and we're still awaiting information on the part of the Saudi authorities.” The second diplomat said: “The handling of this case by the French intelligence services is totally impermeable and fireproofed (in relation to the foreign affairs ministry). The Turks said that they had passed everything via the secret services. Erdogan himself said that the French and Turkish secret services were in contact.”
Le Drian's comments did not go unnoticed by those same French intelligence services. One secret service source points out that: “The Turks offered the audio recordings to everyone, you just had to put your hand up to get them.” A source at the Ministry of Defence insists that the overseas intelligence agency the DGSE had not made it a “secret” from the boss of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was their way of making it clear that the information was indeed shared with Le Drian's team.
The French presidency did not want to comment on the issue and said: “It's the ministries of foreign affairs and Europe that are leading on this issue.” Meanwhile three other diplomats, either serving or recently retired but all plugged into what is going on at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, say that they were also informed of the fact that the audio tapes had been circulated. One said: “Le Drian's attitude is very shocking and clumsy, it's a real blunder. But it's not surprising: since he became [foreign] minister the main management groups at the [ministry] have noted – and they complain openly about it – that he behaves and reasons as if he were still at [the Ministry of] Defence [editor's note, his job under President François Hollande] even if that involves taking stances that are risky or hard to defend in relation to some regimes such as Egypt or Saudi Arabia.”
This former administrative director at the ministry, who is passing on an analysis which can often be heard around the department, says: “Le Drian behaves as if his priority mission was to protect and develop commercial deals that have been concluded or which have being negotiated. Not just arms deals, to which he is especially attentive, but also other large contracts, like for example the one for the[high-speed train service] from Mecca to Medina in Saudi Arabia.” Mediapart contacted Jean-Yves Le Drian's office about this story but there was no response.
On most occasions covert operations such as the murder of Jamal Khashoggi are discreetly hidden by the different parties involved. But President Erdogan caught out all Western governments by deciding to reveal what the police had discovered. In doing so he has trapped all those who have for years kowtowed to and had a humiliating attitude towards Riyadh by closing their eyes to the Saudi kingdom's abuses. By lying over the information that he possessed, Jean-Yves Le Drian has revealed the compromising relationship that France has had with one of the most criminal regimes on the planet.
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- The French version of this article can be found here.
English version by Michael Streeter