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Paris (AFP) – The French Foreign Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, proposed on January 7 an eventual cancellation of the Dakar Rally, held in Saudi Arabia, after the explosion of a vehicle in a possible “terrorist attack” on December 30.
“We have thought that perhaps it is worth giving up this sporting event. The organizers decided to keep[lo]”Le Drian stated in an interview on ‘BFMTV’ television and ‘RMC’ radio.
“In this case, you have to be very careful, at least to put in place enough and reinforced protection devices. I think they have done it, but in any case the question remains open,” he added.
The head of French diplomacy estimated that “perhaps there was a terrorist attack against the Dakar” and called on the Saudi authorities to show “the greatest transparency.”
The events date back to December 30 in Jeddah (central western Saudi Arabia), when a vehicle occupied by five Frenchmen was affected by an explosion. Its driver, Philippe Boutron, 61, was seriously injured and repatriated to France.
On Tuesday, the French national antiterrorist prosecutor’s office announced the opening of a preliminary investigation into the explosion for “attempted murder in connection with a terrorist group”, to be carried out by the DGSI intelligence service.
Although the Saudi authorities ruled out on Saturday the hypothesis of a criminal act and described what happened as an “accident”, the organization of the race and the French Foreign Ministry did not exclude the first possibility.
“There have already been terrorist actions in Saudi Arabia against French interests,” said the foreign minister.
In October 2020, a guard at the French consulate in Jeddah was injured in a knife attack. Two weeks later, an attack in the same city left two wounded during the armistice ceremony of the First World War, in the presence of Western diplomats, especially French.
Since its first edition in 1979, the Dakar Rally has faced threats against its security, which forced it to be transferred between 2009 and 2019 to South America to escape possible terrorist actions linked to conflicts in Africa.
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