Failures of a diplomacy under orders | Athalayar

Excluded from the peace process in Syria, absent from the main international meetings within the UMA, the “new Algeria” of the Tebboune-Chengriha group is collecting one diplomatic setback after another, while its media stops trumpeting the “return to force”. Algerian diplomacy”, turning the failure of the November 1 Arab summit in Algiers into a victory that only exists in their imaginations.

During the preparations for the Algiers summit, Algerian leaders kept shouting to anyone who would listen that the meeting of Arab leaders would be an unprecedented success and an opportunity to reunite Arab forces. Choosing the date of November 1 was a way to play on the sensitive chords of the Arab peoples and governments who sanctified the Algerian War of Liberation against French colonialism. This led to the acceptance of Arab sovereignties in November 2022 when the Arab League summit was to be held in March of the same year. The summit was canceled because of Algerian leaders’ belligerent policy towards their Moroccan neighbors, who cut diplomatic ties months earlier and closed Moroccan airspace to all civilian and military aircraft. Back to 1994.

Arab leaders did not disappoint, maintaining their hostile policy toward the West, announcing with great fanfare the regime in Algiers’ desire to hold a November summit to reunite Arab blocs. Algerian diplomacy is full of contradictions and lacks honesty and imagination. Although the Moroccan sovereign appealed to the leaders of the Arab Gulf countries to come to Algiers in large numbers for the success of the summit, none of the kings and emirs of this region went to a meeting, the purpose of which was reset. The tarnished Algerian image is enough to give this Arab League a much-needed breath of fresh air.

Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani was the only Gulf head of state to visit Algiers. His presence served more than his guests. Not only was Amir late, but suddenly he did not participate in the beginning of the conference, and worse, he did not attend the meeting the next day. After forcing the Algerian president to suspend work at the summit to accompany him to lay the foundation stone of a hospital funded by Qatar and carried out by the Germans, he spent the day touring the Casbah in old Algiers.

Debon may have called his summit a great success, but the truth is that all observers, whether Arab or foreigner, noted a failure, of which we may say at least notice. A diplomat who fully accepts the responsibility for a failure, under the orders of the soldiers stationed in Morocco, justifies their excessive expenditure in terms of weapons, from which they receive huge bribes. It’s no secret.
Syria soon lost this other trade record

Algiers, which has long been a vocal proponent of turning the Syrian issue from its real political and socio-economic problems into a commercial agenda to divert local opinion, has suffered a severe setback on the Arab political scene.
On April 30, Jordan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister invited his counterparts from the Gulf States, Egypt, and the Iraqi Cooperation Council countries to hold a meeting dedicated to the Syrian crisis, which has lasted more than a dozen years. The meeting, which was held in Riyadh on April 14 at the invitation of Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Benfarhan Al Saud, continues. At both meetings, Algeria, which has held the presidency of the Arab League since the Algiers summit on November 1, 2022, was conspicuously absent. bad The day after the Riyadh meeting, the Saudi Foreign Minister sent a message to his Moroccan counterpart, Nasser Bourita, to inform him of the decisions taken during the meeting.

Debon’s ears really perked up at this news. Not a single Arab country supports the Algerians, even half-heartedly, in its anti-Moroccan wars, but goes so far as to ignore the Algerian soldiers when the Algerians consider them their flower plants. These are the people who maneuvered behind the scenes and in public to return Syria to the Arab concert. Against all odds, it was the Gulf states of Egypt, Iraq and Jordan who took the trophy and limited themselves to reporting to Morocco, paying little attention to Algeria, who holds the presidency of the Arab League. A real blow to a power seeking international legitimacy while lacking legitimacy at the domestic level.

At the African level, things are not going well. Maghrib is also not in the plan. Nothing. Recently Moroccan diplomat Amina Salman was appointed as UMA’s Permanent Representative to the African Union, receiving the Green Tree for Algerian Diplomacy by Tunisian Tayeb Bakkouch Secretary General of the Maghreb Union, on France 24 Channel Television. Algiers, through its ambassador in Addis Ababa, nervously contested the Moroccan diplomatic post.
To conclude this tour of the setbacks of Algerian diplomacy, it should be noted that five of the seven super-envoys designated as special envoys on important issues have been suspended at will.

Although their appointment in September 2021 was made with great fanfare, their tenure, an admission of defeat, was subject to discreet publication in the Official Gazette on 16 April. The remaining two are Amar Belani, who has been appointed Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, without knowing whether he will keep his previous post of “Special Envoy for Western Sahara and the Maghreb”. The Special Envoy has not set foot in the Sahara or any other Maghreb country since being appointed to this post. He made increasingly bellicose declarations against Morocco in the first months of his mandate. Since then, nothing.
The second super-diplomat is Boudjemaa Dilmi “Special Envoy for African Issues and Monitoring Reconciliation and Peace in Mali”.

In conclusion, diplomacy never experienced instability under the rule of the Sengiriha-Debon duo. 3 Foreign Ministers succeeded each other in 3 years and the creation of 7 Super Diplomat posts was soon dissolved due to inefficiency. A diplomat who lived through the glory days of Algerian diplomacy says, “A performance cannot see the light of day as long as the diplomat is only an executor of orders from the palace.”