Emmanuel Macron on a diplomatic trip. The French President was at a regional conference in support of Iraq on the shores of the Dead Sea in Jordan in Sweimeh on Tuesday. The head of state notably congratulated Qatar on the World Cup and his “friend”, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, on organizing COP27 in November, at the risk of a new barrage of criticism. We summarize the most important statements of the President of the Republic.
- Emmanuel Macron welcomes his “girlfriend” Sissi to the COP27
“A few weeks ago a COP organized by Egypt ended and I congratulate my friend President Sissi because Sharm el-Sheikh managed to bring the world together and resolve some of the absolutely crucial issue of casualties and damage,” he added. COP27 ended with the adoption of a highly controversial text on helping poor countries affected by climate change, but also on the failure to set new ambitions for reducing greenhouse gases. “And the next COP will be in the United Arab Emirates, showing how the region is becoming a diplomatic epicenter,” Emmanuel Macron said.
The French President has also been regularly criticized by human rights defenders for his links to the Egyptian President, despite the repression in that country. Notably, he presented him with France’s highest decoration, the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, during a state visit by Abdel Fattah al-Sissi to Paris in December 2020.
- The President “accepts” his visit to Qatar despite criticism.
“We are finishing a World Cup, which is the first in the Arab world and was held in Qatar, and I congratulate them on that,” he also said. The French leader has been heavily criticized by the opposition for having twice traveled to Qatar to support the French team, despite the many controversies surrounding human rights in the country and the country’s environmental impact, and for his compliments on the organization of the event Cup in air-conditioned stadiums.
Qatar is also the focus of an investigation into the loud suspicion of corruption in the European Parliament. “I suppose so,” launched the French president between the semi-finals and the final of the cup that was ultimately lost by the Blues to the Argentines.
- “Today Iraq is the scene of influences, incursions, destabilization”
During this regional conference in support of Iraq, Emmanuel Macron also called for that country, under the influence of Iran, to take a different path than that of an “externally dictated model”. “I want to share with you France’s bond through its history, its diplomatic action (…) for the stability of the region (…) so that there is a path that is not that of a form of hegemony, imperialism, a model would from the outside dictated,” he said at the Baghdad II summit on the shores of the Dead Sea in Jordan.
“Iraq is today the scene of influences, incursions and destabilizations linked to the entire region,” added the French president, without ever mentioning Iran, represented at the conference by its chief diplomat, Hossein Amir-Abdollah. This summit, which will gather around Iraq and France the main players in the Middle East, including disputed Iran and Saudi Arabia, aims to defuse the crises that are rocking the region.