Need to respect norms and decorum

Speaker of the Lower House of Parliament Atef Tarawneh made a diplomatic issue of the attack launched by the Syrian embassy in Amman against MP Abdullah Obeidat for expressing his views about the Syrian conflict and President Bashar Assad during a recent public session of the Lower House.

The attack by the Syrian embassy is indeed unbecoming of a diplomatic mission. It violated all diplomatic norms and protocols.

There are certainly other ways of responding or dealing with the unnecessary remarks by the Jordanian member of Parliament vis-à-vis the person of the Syrian leader.

Diplomatic missions surely have ways and follow certain procedures when reacting to certain policy statements by the governments that host them that they consider hostile or objectionable, and going beyond these legitimate and standard practices to launch personal attacks on government officials is certainly out of line.

The Syrian embassy could have sought an appointment with the Jordanian foreign minister, or any other high official at the ministry, and submitted a verbal or written complaint about any official statement considered hostile.

Going to the press or social media directly is not in line with proper and normal diplomatic procedures.

That said, a Jordanian parliamentarian should also refrain from expressing his views on an issue by attacking or criticising the leader of a foreign country; in this case of a brotherly Arab country.

One’s opinion — particularly an official’s or a public figure’s — is a personal matter and should stay so, not made public.

The speaker of the Lower House need therefore also remind his colleagues that they have to follow a minimum of parliamentary decorum and refrain from making attacks of personal nature on foreign governments or their leaders.