Tebboune: the New York flop
All the way to New York, the Algerian president's head was full of dreams. He saw himself being received with great pomp by Joe Biden and making a historic speech at the UN.
Receiving the American ambassador to Algiers, Elizabeth Moore Aubin, three days before his departure for New York, the Algerian president took the opportunity to ask to meet the head of the White House during his trip to Uncle Sam's country, where he was due to attend the 78th session of the UN General Assembly. His request was motivated by his desire to maintain balanced relations with the major powers. After meeting Russia's Vladimir Putin and China's XI Jinping, Abdelmadjid Tebboune would like to meet Joe Biden.
Arriving two days before the opening of the General Assembly, Tebboune failed to see any sign of the Americans. Even the other heads of delegation present in New York ignored him. He contented himself with meetings with his usual "friends", such as the Palestinian Mahmoud Abbès, the Iranian Ibrahim Raïssi, the Cuban Miguel Diaz-Canel and the South African Cyril Ramaphosa, in addition to the presidents of Ghana and Guinea-Bissau. A meagre record for a man on a big-game hunt, giving himself the air of a great leader.
As for his meeting with the President of the Swiss Confederation, that's a thing of the past. Mandated by the generals to ask Alain Berset to take action to close the case of retired general Khaled Nezzar, who is being prosecuted by the Swiss justice system for crimes against humanity and war crimes, Abdelmadjid Tebboune was unaware, as were his advisors and those who mandated him, that the Swiss president's term of office is just one year. His term ends in three months. On the other hand, in Switzerland, the separation of powers is truly enshrined. Judges are elected and not subject to political influence. Tebboune has therefore knocked on the wrong door. And he suffered another setback he could have done without.
He had hoped to make up for this setback by meeting the American Chief Executive.
Tebboune, who had so hoped to meet Joe Biden, felt he was close to his goal when he learned that the American president was in New York to attend the same event to which he had invited himself. So, there's no need to think about a trip to Washington, nor to make a place for himself on the agenda of the man who reigns over the world's leading power. It's all on the spot.
Counting down the days and hours, Tebboune never saw it coming. On learning that on Wednesday September 20, President Joe Biden would be inviting the heads of delegations to a reception at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, on the sidelines of the 78th UN General Assembly, the Algerian head of state began to hope for a meeting with the tenant of the White House. In the absence of a tête-à-tête in the Oval Office, a handshake will go down in history.
Much to his chagrin, Tebboune didn't see the invitation to the Metropolitan Museum of Art coming. For a reason known only to the organizers of the reception, he was not on the guest list. This is the first time an Algerian president has been scorned in this way. It is the worst humiliation that can happen to a head of state to be excluded from a ceremony to which all his peers are invited. One wonders whether this exclusion concerns the man himself or the regime he represents. It is true that the Algerian regime is not in the odor of sanctity with the US administration, nor on the international scene, where it has accumulated a series of failures. A belligerent regime that multiplies quarrels and provocations while displaying misplaced arrogance.
This arrogance was evident in Tebboune's speech to an empty hall, in which he lined up one nonsense after another, culminating in his smug announcement that his country was preparing to produce 1.4 billion m3 of desalinated seawater every day. Failing a handshake with Biden, it's this sentence that will go down in the annals of President Tebboune's history. After all, Biden had a lot to do with Tebboune's failure.
