ALGIERS: Algerian Finance Minister Aimene Benabderrahmane was named prime minister Wednesday, the presidency said, following legislative elections earlier this month and as the country seeks to curb a deep socio-economic crisis.
“Aimene Benabderrahmane has been appointed prime minister and charged with carrying on consultations with political parties and civil society to form a government as soon as possible,” the presidency said in a statement.
Benabderrahmane, 60, replaces Abdelaziz Djerad, who had held the post since late 2019 and presented his government’s resignation last week, following early parliamentary elections held on June 12.
Djerad’s government had been unable to redress the country’s economic crisis.
Africa’s fourth-largest economy is heavily dependent on oil revenues, which have slumped in the face of the global economic slowdown.
Unemployment stands at more than 12 percent, according to World Bank figures.
President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who had previously expressed dissatisfaction with Djerad and his cabinet, thanked him for leading the government “during difficult conditions,” particularly the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Also Wednesday, the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP), which came third in the vote with 65 seats in the 407-seat legislature, said it would not be part of a new government.
The country’s incumbent National Liberation Front (FLN) won the most seats in the June 12 vote that saw just 23 percent voter participation.
The low national turnout has been seen as a sign of Algerians’ disillusionment with and defiance of a political class deemed to have lost much of its credibility.
Algeria’s long-running “Hirak” pro-democracy protest movement boycotted the polls.
Ahead of the official results, the MSP had said its candidates were in the lead in most regions and hinted it could be part of the government.
But following consultations with President Tebboune, the party said it decided to step back.
“What was proposed does not allow us to influence political and economic developments,” MSP chief Abderazzak Makri told a news conference in Algiers.
He said he had been asked to propose a list of 27 names from which the executive would select four or five ministers.
“It’s not up to us to choose our ministers (in the government) and that is unacceptable,” he said.
“We want to be in power and not its facade,” Makri said.
The MSP had been part of successive Algerian governments from 1996 to 2011.
Algeria finance minister Benabderrahmane named new PM
https://arab.news/nnx2p
Algeria finance minister Benabderrahmane named new PM
- Benabderrahmane, 60, replaces Abdelaziz Djerad, who had held the post since late 2019
- Djerad’s government had been unable to redress the country’s economic crisis
Secrecy, mines and Israeli strikes complicate removal of Assad-era chemical weapons, says Syrian envoy
- Nevertheless, new authorities made significant progress in their work with Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, he tells UN Security Council
- Syrian authorities grant OPCW experts unrestricted access to 23 sites and since October have been hosting the organization’s longest continuous presence in the country
NEW YORK CITY: Syria’s envoy to the UN said on Thursday that secrecy surrounding the nation’s former chemical weapons program, security risks from land mines and other unexploded ordnance, and Israel’s targeting of suspected weapons sites continue to complicate his government’s efforts to eliminate Assad-era chemical weapons.
Speaking at a UN Security Council meeting about Syria’s chemical weapons, Ambassador Ibrahim Olabi said the nation’s new authorities had nevertheless made significant progress over the past year in their work with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
Despite what he described as “major challenges,” Syria had moved the issue “from a stage of suspicion and manipulation to one of partnership with the OPCW,” he said, adding: “Syria has achieved a qualitative leap in its cooperation with the OPCW.”
This shift is reflected in recent decisions by the watchdog’s executive council and changing positions among its member states, Olabi noted.
Syria’s chemical weapons program has been under international scrutiny since the early years of the country’s civil war, when repeated chemical attacks killed or injured large numbers of civilians. The deadliest incident occurred in 2013 in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, when a sarin attack killed hundreds and triggered international efforts to dismantle the country’s chemical arsenal.
Olabi said the authorities that took over after President Bashar Assad and his regime were toppled in December 2024 were confronting what he called the “heavy legacy of the Assad era,” during which chemical weapons were widely used against civilians. He described the program as an inherited burden rather than a policy of the new government.
“The chemical file is a prime example of these inherited issues, issues of which we were victims,” he added.
Syrian authorities have granted OPCW experts unrestricted access during eight deployments that included visits to 23 sites, he said, and since October have been hosting what he described as the organization’s longest continuous presence in the country.
“This marks the beginning of a sustained presence of the OPCW in Syria,” Olabi added.
Adedeji Ebo, the UN’s deputy high representative for disarmament affairs, said OPCW teams visited 19 locations in Syria last year, four of them previously declared chemical weapons sites and 15 suspected locations, where they conducted interviews and collected samples in their attempts to determine the full scope of undeclared chemical weapons activity.
Some other sites are in dangerous areas, he added, which poses significant risks to both Syrian and international personnel.
“On-site destruction may be required where conditions prevent safe removal,” Ebo said, noting that a recent OPCW decision authorizing expedited on-site destruction of weapons marked a positive step forward.
He also highlighted the reestablishment of Syria’s National Authority for the OPCW and the watchdog’s current, continuous presence in Damascus.
Olabi said Syrian national teams had identified two sites containing empty cylinders previously used to store toxic chemicals and had immediately reported them to the OPCW. Syrian authorities also handed over about 6,000 documents relating to the former regime’s chemical weapons program, he added, and helped arrange interviews with 14 witnesses, including individuals who were involved with the program.
Syrian authorities were also cooperating with international investigators examining chemical attacks by Assad’s government, he said, and accountability and justice for the victims are priorities for the new authorities.
“Syria reiterates its determination to continue the efforts to close this chapter,” Olabi said, adding that there was “no place for chemical weapons in today’s world.”
