Emmanuel Macron had to precipitate his return from Guinea-Bissau on Thursday for a work dinner. Several parameters explain the honors that the Elysée grants it.
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This is the principle of communicating vases adapted to diplomacy. Whenever the alliance between the United States and Saudi Arabia is wing, the understanding between the Kingdom and France starts again. This theorem was observed in December, when the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed Ben Salman, treated in pariah by Washington for his alleged role in the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in 2018, welcomed Emmanuel Macron to Djedd.
The axiom was to be verified once again, Thursday, July 28, with the reception at the Elysée of the number two Saudi, invited by the French president to a work dinner. The one we nicknamed “MBS” certainly received the visit last week from the American president, Joe Biden, resigned to reconnect with the prince, in the hope of seeing the latter increase the production of Saudi oil and engage as A drop in the price of gasoline. But the tenant of the White House left empty -handed, a sign of the persistent cold between the two men.
A breach in which Emmanuel Macron seems to want to rush. The head of state was to precipitate his return from Guinea-Bissau, where he was still Thursday morning, on the fourth day of his tour in Africa, to welcome his host at the scheduled time, 8:30 p.m., in the courtyard of The Elysée. Not content with having been the first major leader to go to Arabia after the Khashoggi affair, the French president becomes the first statesman to receive the Saudi dolphin in a large Western capital, since this scandal.
Avoid that the ditch widens more
Beyond the weight of Arabia in the Middle East, a factor who, in the mind of Mr. Macron, made the forties of Mohammed ben Salman counterproductive, several parameters explain the honors that the Elysée granted. The war in Ukraine, first of all. Since February 24, the conflict has grabbed Europeans and their American allies, who have been able to ran ranks against Russia by Vladimir Putin, both within the European Union and NATO. For Paris, it is now urgent to turn to countries which refuse to choose their camp, in Africa as in the Gulf, to prevent the gap from digging more with them.
The outspoken fate of the Iranian nuclear agreement also matters. The revival of this arrangement of which former American president Donald Trump had withdrawn, in 2018, remains blocked by persistent disputes between the United States and Iran. On Tuesday, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, submitted to the parties a compromise text, by urging them to accept it to avoid a “dangerous nuclear crisis”. Tehran continues not to keep his initial commitments and get closer to the moment when he has accumulated enough fissile materials to acquire a bomb, in a few months.
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