HIBAPRESS – Rabat
Mauritanian bloggers launched a harsh campaign of criticism against their country's ambassador to Rabat, Ahmed Ould Bahya, about two and a half years ago, after he appeared performing a protocol bow while presenting his credentials to King Mohammed VI, considering that move, according to them, "an insult to dignity" and "a scratch on national sovereignty."
The Mauritanian ambassador officially presented his credentials on October 4, 2023, at the Royal Palace in Rabat, during an official diplomatic reception that the Moroccan monarch dedicated to a number of new ambassadors accredited to Morocco, in accordance with the customs and protocols in place on such occasions.
Although the bow is part of the diplomatic protocol in force, and all ambassadors accredited to the Kingdom have adhered to it, including the ambassadors of the United States of America; Talwar Bonit, and France; Christophe Lecourtier, and Sweden; Jorgen Carlsen, Mauritanian bloggers at the time chose to attack the ambassador severely.
However, the same voices that escalated their criticisms against that protocol bow almost disappeared when scenes from Nouakchott were circulated showing Mauritanians kissing the hand of the Iranian ambassador during a party event, a behavior that did not arouse the same enthusiasm that accompanied the criticism of the bow in front of the Moroccan king.
This disparity in stances prompted a number of followers to question the criteria that govern the discourse of some bloggers, as a protocol move in front of the king of a neighboring country turned into an issue of "sovereignty and dignity," while kissing the hand of the ambassador of a foreign country on Mauritanian soil passed without the same wave of condemnation.
Observers considered that the silence that accompanied the scenes of kissing the hand of the Iranian ambassador reveals a clear selectivity in employing the discourse of dignity and sovereignty, as these slogans are invoked in certain contexts, while they disappear in other situations, according to political or ideological calculations.
