Eyes riveted on the white clock which ticks off the seconds, the knee which jerks up and down and the fingers which twist… Who has never been this feverish student, sitting in the corridor which faces the CPE office , before the fateful refitting of the straps? In our memories of petrified former teenagers, such a summons rhymes with punishment. For the Israeli ambassador, however, it is one of the risks of the job.
Joshua Zarka was summoned this Tuesday, after armed Israeli police officers entered “without authorization” into the Eléona compound, a French enclave located in East Jerusalem. They also arrested two French gendarmes – since released – provoking the ire of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, who renounced his visit to the place of pilgrimage.
For all nations, “summoning an ambassador is a very clear way of expressing discontent,” notes Jeff Hawkins, associate researcher at IRIS and former United States ambassador to the Central African Republic.
The “argument scale”
Asked about the parallel with summoning a disruptive student, Jeff Hawkins smiles. “If the country summoned has clearly made a mistake, yes, the ambassador appears before the school principal to be punished. It’s a common exercise but it’s supposed to be stressful,” he explains. The fact remains that there is a “scale in the shouting match”, according to Jean de Gliniasty.
“Level zero of the summons is when it is announced via a telephone call and it is not made public. Then, there is the verbal note sent by the protocol of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and, if it is made public, we go up another notch,” says the former French ambassador to Senegal, Brazil and Russia. . Everything that is “around the convening” is also important, notes Jeff Hawkins, notably the way in which countries communicate. Because in diplomacy, every word is carefully weighed.
“We fried ourselves”
At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the balance of power is still less unbalanced than in a school. “When the country sending the ambassador is also angry, it can be a two-way communication,” assures Jeff Hawkins. The ambassador, summoned to receive the reprimands in the name of his country, can therefore also expose his recriminations. Jean de Gliniasty experienced this exercise when he was ambassador to Russia. “I received a phone call and it was a discreet summons. The Russians found that I supported too energetically a French company accused of having helped opposition parties,” he recalls.
This “warning launched in Paris” was “eventful. I said what I had to say, he said what he had to say, we had a fight,” smiles Jean de Gliniasty. He explains, however, that when a summons is not publicized, like his, it concerns “generally a concrete case which has little political charge”. So very different from the incident which occurred between Paris and Tel Aviv. Ambassadors are prepared for this eventuality and “in 99% of cases, they have received language elements in order to convey their country’s message,” emphasizes Jeff Hawkins.
The risk of “becoming persona non grata”
Convocations are not invitations that can be skipped. “It is really difficult to refuse and if an ambassador did so, he could only do so on instructions from his country,” insists Jeff Hawkins. Last March, European Union ambassadors collectively refused to attend a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, according to Moscow. However, by refusing to follow up on such a summons, the ambassador takes the risk of an escalation.
“The ambassador can find himself isolated because he is boycotted by his host country” and, in the worst case, “become persona non grata and be expelled,” warns Jean de Gliniasty. According to him, this type of escalation is, however, rare because “the ambassador is careful not to offend the authorities and instead tries to put oil in the wheels.” Even if it means becoming a receptacle for the discontent of the country that welcomes him…
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