Interview with Akram Belkaid, Algerian journalist and writer

1 / Last October you published a detailed analysis on "below the Qatar-bashing" by mentioning that it was a "campaign orchestrated by the United Arab Emirates and Israel." Since then, relations between Qatar and its neighbors (notably Saudi Arabia) have notoriously improved. Do you think that this campaign is still relevant and that the Emirates are still behind?

One must give credit where credit is due. Indeed, it is primarily the American press, including The New York Times, which highlighted the hidden mechanisms of "Qatar-bashing."

Qatar Embassy in Paris has just launched its Twitter account, which is assuredly the first step in a strategy to develop the public communication of the emirate in France.

Installed since 2005 in Landolfo-Carcano Hotel in Place de l'Etoile, Qatar Embassy in Paris had not yet taken the plunge of a presence on social networks. More generally accustomed to a discreet communication based on dynamic networks of diplomatic or economic cooperation, the diplomatic mission of the emirate now seems to want to add a new element to its public relations machinery. No doubt that this impulse comes from the reflections of the ambassador, Sheikh Mishaal bin Hamad al-Thani stationed in the capital since November 2014, who has by the way recently stepped up meetings with French officials.