ALGIERS: Algeria’s presidency has recalled veteran crisis manager Ahmed Ouyahia as prime minister, a job he first held in the 1990s when Algeria was battling an Islamist insurgency.
Ouyahia, 65, will replace Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who held the job for just three months, the office of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said on Tuesday.
Ouyahia will likely be seen as a steadying influence as Algeria tries to carry out economic adjustments to cope with a fall in oil prices that has slashed state revenues.
The presidency statement gave no reason for the change. Ouyahia has served three terms as prime minister and most recently was Bouteflika’s chief of staff.
A veteran politician and diplomat by training, Ouyahia first became prime minister in the mid-1990s, when Algeria was fighting to suppress an Islamist insurgency.
He is also leader of the National Rally for Democracy, a party close to the presidency that increased its number of seats in May’s parliamentary election.
“Ouyahia is a renowned servant of the state who has the experience to manage situations of crisis,” said Arslan Chikhaoui, an Algiers-based analyst who runs a private consultancy firm.
The North African state’s political system is often opaque, and Bouteflika, 80, has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013. Under the constitution, the president appoints the prime minister.
Political jostling around Bouteflika has intensified as his health has waned, fueling questions about the shape of any transition if he steps down before his term ends in 2019.
Moves to reduce subsidies and imports and diversify Algeria’s oil-dependent economy have created political divisions over how far to push reforms.
As prime minister Tebboune was leading the austerity drive, and had also spoken out about the need to separate money from politics.
In the run up to Tebboune’s dismissal, there was media speculation that he had fallen out of favor because of differences with Ali Haddad, a prominent businessman close to the presidency.
Tebboune was also perceived to be encroaching on foreign policy, seen as a preserve of the presidency, after he held a meeting with French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe earlier this month, said one senior source who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
“My loyalty to the president remains complete,” Tebboune said after his dismissal.
Algeria recalls veteran crisis manager Ouyahia as prime minister
Algeria recalls veteran crisis manager Ouyahia as prime minister
US believes Israel, Lebanon have agreed terms to end Israel-Hezbollah conflict
Israel’s government on Monday said it was moving toward a ceasefire in the war with Hezbollah but there were still outstanding issues.
Arrest Warrant: UK would follow ‘due process’ if Netanyahu were to visit – foreign minister
- ICC issued arrest warrants on Thursday against Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu
- Several EU states have said they will meet commitments under the statute if needed
FIUGGI: Britain would follow due process if Benjamin Netanyahu visited the UK, foreign minister David Lammy said on Monday, when asked if London would fulfil the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against the Israeli prime minister.
“We are signatories to the Rome Statute, we have always been committed to our obligations under international law and international humanitarian law,” Lammy told reporters at a G7 meeting in Italy.
“Of course, if there were to be such a visit to the UK, there would be a court process and due process would be followed in relation to those issues.”
The ICC issued the warrants on Thursday against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Ibrahim Al-Masri for alleged crimes against humanity.
Several EU states have said they will meet their commitments under the statute if needed, but Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has invited Netanyahu to visit his country, assuring him he would face no risks if he did so.
“The states that signed the Rome convention must implement the court’s decision. It’s not optional,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, said during a visit to Cyprus for a workshop of Israeli and Palestinian peace activists.
Those same obligations were also binding on countries aspiring to join the EU, he said.
Turkiye man kills seven before taking his own life
Istanbul: A 33-year-old Turkish man shot dead seven people in Istanbul on Sunday, including his parents, his wife and his 10-year-old son, before taking his own life, the authorities reported on Monday.
The man, who was found dead in his car shortly after the shooting, is also accused of wounding two other family members, one of them seriously, the Istanbul governor’s office said in a statement.
The authorities, who had put the death toll at four on Sunday evening, announced on Monday the discovery near a lake on Istanbul’s European shore of the bodies of the killer’s wife and son, as well as the lifeless body of his mother-in-law.
According to the Small Arms Survey (SAS), a Swiss research program, over 13.2 million firearms are in circulation in Turkiye, most of them illegally, for a population of around 85 million.
2 Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in West Bank: PA
- The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli forces entered the village on Sunday night
Yabad: The Palestinian Authority said two Palestinians, including a teenage boy, were killed during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank village of Yabad.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli forces entered the village on Sunday night, leading to clashes during which soldiers shot dead two Palestinians.
The two dead were identified by the Palestinian health ministry as Muhammad Rabie Hamarsheh, 13, and Ahmad Mahmud Zaid, 20.
“Overnight, during an IDF (Israeli army) counterterrorism activity in the area of Yabad, two terrorists hurled explosives at IDF soldiers. The soldiers responded with fire and hits were identified,” an Israeli military source told AFP.
Last week, the Israeli army launched several raids in the West Bank city of Jenin, killing nine people, most of them Palestinian militants.
Violence in the West Bank has soared since the war in Gaza erupted on October 7 last year after Hamas’s attack on Israel.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 777 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
Palestinian attacks on Israelis have also killed at least 24 people in the West Bank in the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.
Israel says hit Hezbollah command center in deadly weekend strike
- The strike hit a residential building in the heart of Beirut before dawn Saturday
- Since September 23, Israel has intensified its Lebanon air campaign
JERUSALEM: The Israeli army on Monday said it had struck a Hezbollah command center in the downtown Beirut neighborhood of Basta in a deadly air strike at the weekend.
“The IDF (Israeli military) struck a Hezbollah command center,” the army said regarding the strike that the Lebanese health ministry said killed 29 people and wounded 67 on Saturday.
The strike hit a residential building in the heart of Beirut before dawn Saturday, leaving a large crater, AFP journalists at the scene reported.
A senior Lebanese security source said that “a high-ranking Hezbollah officer was targeted” in the strike, without confirming whether or not the official had been killed.
Hezbollah official Amin Cherri said no leader of the Lebanese movement was targeted in Basta.
Since September 23, Israel has intensified its Lebanon air campaign, later sending in ground troops against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
The war followed nearly a year of limited exchanges of fire initiated by Hezbollah in support of its ally Hamas after the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the Gaza war.
The conflict has killed at least 3,754 people in Lebanon since October 2023, according to the health ministry, most of them since September this year.
On the Israeli side, authorities say at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians have been killed.
