Tebboune Snubbed Outrageously at IATF: A Live Humiliation for a Regime on Its Last Breath
A surreal scene unfolded on Thursday, September 4, at the opening of the 4th Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF 2025). As delegations filed into the Conference Palace, Burundi’s Prime Minister, Nestor Ntahontuye, blatantly ignored the presence of Abdelmadjid Tebboune, refusing to shake his hand. The diplomatic snub, broadcast live, exposed once again the growing isolation of Algeria’s military regime.
Eyewitnesses described Tebboune as frozen, visibly embarrassed, his arms awkwardly hanging like a misplaced extra in a bad comedy. The moment quickly went viral on social media, where users mocked the Algerian president for looking like anything but a head of state meant to embody his country’s dignity.
A symbolic slap from a Moroccan ally
The humiliation stings even more when viewed in context: Burundi recognizes Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara and even operates a consulate in Laayoune. By refusing to acknowledge Tebboune, Ntahontuye did not simply snub a man. Symbolically, he tore down the hollow façade of Algerian diplomacy, which has long obsessed over Morocco while failing to assert itself in Africa through anything other than propaganda.
The decline of a discredited power
This very public embarrassment is yet another sign of a regime stripped of credibility. Algeria’s military rulers, so fond of lecturing others, now find themselves reduced to puppets openly disregarded by their African peers. Tebboune, supposedly the face of Algeria’s pride, has instead become the object of international ridicule, losing what little prestige he still had—if any at all.
Algeria, prisoner of its obsessions
Instead of investing in the future of its youth and unleashing the potential of its people, the regime remains trapped in bitterness, diplomatic failures, and sterile maneuvers against Morocco. The result is a foreign policy that looks more like a farce than a strategy, epitomized by a president humiliated in public by an African leader whose country, ironically, now looks to Rabat with respect and confidence.
The image will remain: Tebboune ignored and humiliated, a living symbol of the isolation and discredit of a regime whose only tools of survival are repression at home and hostility toward Morocco.
Video link:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/16QYgzKsLr/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Translated from Abderrazzak Boussaid’s French article – le7tv
