Jacques Serais // Photo credit: Ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP
It’s a visit that comes after all the others. This Tuesday, Emmanuel Macron visited Israel, almost three weeks after the Hamas attack on October 7, which left nearly 1,400 dead. Among the victims: 30 French people. Nine other compatriots are still missing.
During his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the head of state brought a message of cooperation and support to the Israeli executive. Then Emmanuel Macron met Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank, at the same time presenting his condolences to the Palestinian people.
Show France’s credibility in the eyes of the Arab world
But the President of the Republic also made a stopover in Jordan. It must be said that this country is a strategic partner of France in the Middle East. Emmanuel Macron speaks regularly with King Abdullah II and Paris has stationed fighter planes in Amman for almost ten years engaged in the fight against jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria. Above all, for the Head of State, this is an opportunity to send a diplomatic signal.
Last week, no Arab leader wanted to meet US President Joe Biden. With this meeting, Emmanuel Macron wishes to demonstrate that France is credible in the eyes of Arab leaders. And they intend to mark the particularity of the French voice by defending its position of balance.
As such, the King and the President of the Republic will meet this Wednesday morning. The humanitarian issue and the plight of civilians in Gaza must be addressed. A point that Emmanuel Macron will also repeat in Egypt. Because later in the day, the tenant of the Élysée must meet President al-Sissi, while Cairo is seen as a major player in this crisis, particularly in the negotiation for the release of hostages.
Bottle in the sea
But this meeting comes only a few hours after the president’s proposal. During his meeting on Tuesday with the Israeli Prime Minister, Emmanuel Macron proposed mobilizing the international coalition fighting against the Islamic State, in order to “fight against Hamas”.
But at this stage, this project looks more like a sort of bottle in the sea thrown by the French president. The idea, according to Emmanuel Macron’s entourage, is to draw inspiration from the experience of the coalition against the Islamic State. As a reminder, today 80 countries and five international organizations have been involved alongside the Americans since 2014 in the Iraqi-Syrian zone. We must see which aspects are applicable against Hamas, we explain from the Élysée.
The Head of State will have the opportunity to speak about it shortly with the King of Jordan, a member country of the coalition against Daesh. Emmanuel Macron has one month to convince his interlocutors to get behind this idea before the third Baghdad conference, a security meeting created at the initiative of France which will be held at the end of November in the Iraqi capital.