Dutch government defends queen’s meeting with Saudi crown prince

Queen Maxima met Mohammed bin Salman at G20 without mentioning Khashoggi assassination

Dutch centre-left parties have said  Queen Maxima  in was placed in ‘an impossible position’ by allowing the meeting with the crown prince to go ahead. Photograph: Patrick Van Katwijk/EPA

Dutch centre-left parties have said Queen Maxima in was placed in ‘an impossible position’ by allowing the meeting with the crown prince to go ahead. Photograph: Patrick Van Katwijk/EPA

The Dutch government has strongly defended Queen Maxima after she was criticised by a senior UN official for meeting the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, at the G20 last weekend without mentioning the assassination of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Agnes Callamard, the UN investigator whose report last month concluded that the Saudi state was responsible for Khashoggi’s killing and that there was credible evidence that the crown prince may have known about it in advance, was scathing about Maxima’s failure to speak out.

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