Inaudible in the Middle East and throughout the Arab world, French diplomacy is not only in decline but in full collapse. Expelled from its former African «pre-square» by powers that, while certainly derived from coups d’état, appear to have some degree of popularity, France continues to collect diplomatic setbacks. However, this is not the sentiment of «Jupiter,» who dared to declare during his press conference on January 17 (but perhaps it was a second-degree mistake that escaped the common people): «There is no risk of our diplomacy fading; we have a strong diplomacy and no alignment.» Head out of the water between two directives from the Biden Administration perhaps?
The dissonant voices are being ordered to keep quiet. All the French ambassadors in the Arab world (with the exception of three) were moved by the pro-Israeli (and outrageously pro-Netanyahu) and unreadable diplomatic line of the French government on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In fact, between two admonishments by Netanyahu, with whom Emmanuel Macron boasts of regularly talking (when Jacques Chirac and even Nicolas Sarkozy, for their part, mostly avoided him), he recalls that France, a permanent member of the Security Council thanks to one of its illustrious predecessors (and yes, General de Gaulle was a predecessor of Emmanuel Macron, just as George Washington was of George W Bush), must advocate the application of international law. Hence the constant warnings and the absence of any clear direction. The ambassadors were sternly reminded to be in order and their sense of state was urged to give way to the sense of state. Can we officially admit that the Captain doesn’t know how to swim in the ’complicated Orient«? That French diplomacy is running smoothly?
The President’s mood varies according to the last visitor. Thus, from the outlandish idea of an international coalition against Hamas to the image of one against Daesh, as a lifeline that even Netanyahu did not want to take, that is to say... It was once attributed to a diplomat from the «Leopold Sedar Senghor» promotion, the President’s own; it could actually be emanating from a pseudo-intellectual accustomed to muttering nonsense in the ears of certain receptive presidents.
Finally, the January 24 edition of the «Canard Enchaîné» reveals that Sylvain Itté, the Ambassador to Niger from Paris, has been banned from publishing a book titled «At the Heart of French Diplomacy in Africa». Was this part of a meticulous attempt to undermine our credibility? From the adamant insistence that «our forces and our Ambassador will remain in place» to the pitiful retreat under duress, we will only know the tip of the iceberg.
Like the captain of the Titanic and with the same clairvoyance, Emmanuel Macron led French diplomacy, which seemed indestructible, into a complete disaster despite all the signs of distress.
French 
English 
Chinese 
Arabic