Iran Press/ Europe: The French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told RTL radio on Wednesday: “So long as those who are responsible and the circumstances around the killing are not made public, released and evaluated, we will go on demanding the truth.”
He added: “We’ll take the necessary measures against those who are responsible”, according to a Reuters report.
Le Drian said France does not rule out any sanctions against Saudi Arabia, which is a large buyer of French armaments, luxury products and many other exports.
The murder of prominent dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi has drawn fire from around the globe, and from across the political spectrum.
Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October to collect documents for his forthcoming marriage, but his Turkish fiancé who was waiting for him in front of the consulate never saw him again.
The Saudi regime finally accepted on 20 October that Khashoggi has been killed in its' Consulate in Istanbul.
Related news:
Saudi Arabia admits Khashoggi killed in its consulate
Swiss government to rethink ties with Saudi Arabia
The French foreign minister Le Drian also said Germany acted too early, before the result of an investigation into the killing became public. Le Drian said: “I think we must wait for the investigation to find the culprits.”
The French foreign minister went on to downplay the importance of weapons sales to Saudi Arabia for the French economy, saying they represented only 7 percent of France’s overall weapon exports.
“We are not dependent on Saudi Arabia's purchase of weaponry”, Le Drian concluded.
Meanwhile, the UK’s Middle East minister Alistair Burt has said the outcome of the investigation into the murder of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi could potentially impact on British support for Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the war in Yemen, the Guardian reported.
Speaking on Tuesday, Alistair Burt told the House of Commons it was “not an illegitimate question” to ask whether the inquiry would reveal something of the character of the regime in Riyadh and that this would have a bearing on the war in Yemen, which Saudi Arabia entered in 2015.
Related news:
Swedish PM: "Massacring of Yemeni children must stop"
8.4 million Yemenis need urgent food aid: UN
Burt was speaking as the UK foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, held unscheduled talks in London with Martin Griffiths, the UN special envoy for Yemen. Conservative backing for the war in Yemen has been badly damaged by the Khashoggi murder, even if there is little support for the Iranian-backed Houthis.
Burt repeatedly insisted the UK was not a party to the conflict and blamed the Houthis for the failure of talks organised by the UN envoy in Geneva.
His claim drew a furious response from the Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle, who told Burt: “We arm the Saudis. We maintain the air force. We have British soldiers embedded in the control centres. We command the war flight paths. We train Saudi pilots in Wales – the only thing we don’t do is press the button to drop the bomb.
“Can we just not be honest? We are party to this war. We have decided to cosy up to a regime that dismembers its' own civilians in consulates of Nato allies.”
More than 14,000 people have died since Saudi Arabia led many of its allies into the war on Yemen to reinstall the country’s former Riyadh-allied officials. Yemen’s Health Ministry, however, puts the number at above 15,000.
Saudi Arabia, with the support of the United States, the United Arab Emirates and several other countries, has engaged in military aggression against Yemen and ground sieges, naval and air strikes since March 2015.
101/201
Read More:
US orders Saudi puppets to end Yemen war
Yemeni army unveils new high precision 'Badr P-1' smart ballistic missile
Yemeni army destroys two Saudi spy drones
Amnesty International accuses US-Saudi with war crimes in Yemen
Yemeni missiles hit Saudi paid mercenaries' base
