Algeria’s Tebboune re-elected president for second term

People walk past posters of Algeria’s President Abdelmajid Tebboune outside an election campaign headquarters in Algiers on September 8, 2024. (AFP)
People walk past posters of Algeria’s President Abdelmajid Tebboune outside an election campaign headquarters in Algiers on September 8, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 08 September 2024
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Algeria’s Tebboune re-elected president for second term

People walk past posters of Algeria’s President Abdelmajid Tebboune outside an election campaign headquarters in Algiers.
  • Watchdog Amnesty International said earlier this week Algerian authorities were continuing to “stifle civic space by maintaining a severe repression of human rights”

ALGIERS: Algeria’s incumbent President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has been re-elected with almost 95 percent of the vote, the country’s electoral authority ANIE said Sunday.
More than 5.3 million people voted for Tebboune, accounting for “94.65 percent of the vote,” ANIE head Mohamed Charfi told reporters.
ANIE said it only counted the number of voters who cast a ballot for one of the candidates, excluding blank votes.
Tebboune, 78, has been heavily favored to secure a second term, in the race against moderate Islamist Abdelaali Hassani, 57, who won 3.17 percent of the vote and socialist candidate Youcef Aouchiche, 41, who won 2.16 percent.
While Tebboune’s re-election was certain, his main focus was to boost voter participation in Saturday’s poll after a record-low abstention rate of over 60 percent in 2019.
That year, Tebboune became president amid widely boycotted elections and mass pro-democracy Hirak protests that later died out under his tenure with ramped-up policing and hundreds put in jail.
More than 24 million Algerians were registered to vote. But it remained unclear how many people in total had turned out to cast their ballot.
Earlier Sunday, Hassani’s campaign denounced attempts to “inflate the results.”
It said there had been a “failure to deliver vote-sorting records to the candidates’ representatives” and that it recorded “instances of proxy group voting.”
ANIE, which extended the vote by one hour on Saturday after reporting an “average” turnout, has yet to give the final rate of participation in the election.
“The president has been keen to have a significant turnout,” Hasni Abidi, an Algeria analyst at the Geneva-based CERMAM Study Center, told AFP. “It’s his main issue.”
Tebboune’s win Sunday was still “a victory” although he failed to win the vote of young people, who represent half of Algeria’s 45-million-strong population, Abidi said.
As a result, Abidi said, the re-elected president has been “weakened.”
All three candidates have courted the vote of young people, with promises to improve living standards and reduce dependence on hydrocarbons.
After voting in Algiers Saturday morning, Tebboune did not mention turnout, unlike Aouchiche who called for an end to the “boycott” and Hassani who said more voters would make the election “credible.”
Voters meanwhile expressed hopes that the election would transform things on the ground.
“We want this election to result in a real change... a change for the better,” said voter Hassane Boudaoud, 52.
Seghir Derouiche, 72, told AFP that not voting was “ignoring one’s right.”
Two women, Taous Zaiedi, 66, and Leila Belgaremi, 42, said they were voting to “improve the country.”
Ibrahim Sendjak Eddine, a day laborer, said Algerians “are looking for stability, job opportunities, work and housing.”
Yet Tebboune has touted economic successes during his first term, including more jobs and higher wages in Africa’s largest exporter of natural gas.
Although Algeria’s economy has grown at an annualized rate of about four percent over the past two years, it remains heavily dependent on oil and gas to fund its social assistance programs.
He has pledged to create 450,000 jobs and increase social assistance programs if re-elected.
Many “wondered what was the point of voting when all predictions were in favor of the president,” said Abidi.
“Not voting does not mean political opposition,” he added. “Rather, it means people did not see themselves as part of the electoral game.”
The analyst said Tebboune should now address the major deficit in political and media freedoms, with Algerians having “divorced current politics” after the Hirak protests ended.
Watchdog Amnesty International said earlier this week Algerian authorities were continuing to “stifle civic space by maintaining a severe repression of human rights.”
Five years after the Hirak protest movement, Algeria has seen “new arbitrary arrests” while authorities maintain “a zero tolerance approach to dissenting opinions.”
Dozens remain behind bars or are still being prosecuted due to their activism, according to prisoners’ rights group CNLD.


Lebanon PM urges UN resolution on ceasefire with Israel

Lebanon PM urges UN resolution on ceasefire with Israel
Updated 5 sec ago
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Lebanon PM urges UN resolution on ceasefire with Israel

Lebanon PM urges UN resolution on ceasefire with Israel
  • Lebanon’s foreign ministry would ask the UN Security Council to issue a resolution calling for a ‘full and immediate ceasefire’
BEIRUT: Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Friday urged the United Nations to pass a resolution calling for an “immediate” ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.
In a televised address, Mikati emphasized his government’s commitment to deploy the army on the border with Israel as part of a cessation of hostilities, and said Hezbollah agreed on the matter.
Mikati said Lebanon’s foreign ministry would ask the UN Security Council to issue a resolution calling for a “full and immediate ceasefire.”
He said his government was committed to “the full application of Resolution 1701,” which was adopted in 2006 and called for the Lebanese army and peacekeepers to be the only armed forces deployed in the south of the country.
Lebanon is committed to “the deployment of the army in the south and the bolstering of its presence along the border,” he said.
“Hezbollah is in agreement on this issue,” he added.
A government source had previously said that Hezbollah informed Lebanese authorities it had accepted a ceasefire with Israel on September 27, the day an Israeli strike killed its leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Previously, the Iran-backed militant group had said it would only accept a truce if there was also one with its Palestinian ally Hamas in Gaza.
Mikati also condemned attacks on the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon as a “crime,” with peacekeepers targeted two days in a row by Israeli forces, according to Lebanese official media and the foreign ministry.
A year of hostilities has killed more than 2,100 people in Lebanon and forced more than one million people to flee, according to Lebanese authorities.

Iranian president says Israel, backed by West, is ‘killing innocent people’

Iranian president says Israel, backed by West, is ‘killing innocent people’
Updated 48 min ago
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Iranian president says Israel, backed by West, is ‘killing innocent people’

Iranian president says Israel, backed by West, is ‘killing innocent people’
  • Masoud Pezeshkian: ‘I would like to say to Israel: stop killing innocent people. Stop bombing residential buildings, people who have nothing anyway’

MOSCOW: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Friday that Israel should “stop killing innocent people,” and that its actions in the Middle East were backed by the United States and the European Union.
Pezeshkian was speaking to a Russian state TV reporter on the sidelines of an international meeting in Turkmenistan.
Israel in recent weeks has sharply escalated its assault on Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, including by killing its top leaders, sending ground troops into southern Lebanon and bombing the capital Beirut.
An Israeli strike late on Thursday in the heart of Beirut killed 22 people and injured more than 100, Lebanese authorities said.
Israel says the operations in Lebanon aim to allow tens of thousands of its residents to return home after being forced to leave northern Israel due to Hezbollah rocket fire over the past year.
Hezbollah is firing at Israel in support of its ally Hamas, which triggered Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza following an Oct. 7 attack on communities in southern Israel.
“I would like to say to Israel: stop killing innocent people. Stop bombing residential buildings, people who have nothing anyway,” said Pezeshkian, accusing Israel of violating every kind of international agreement.
“It does this because it knows that the US and the European Union are behind it,” he said.
The Middle East remains on high alert for further escalation in the region, awaiting
Israel’s response to an Iranian missile strike on Oct. 1.


Leaders of Jordan and southern Europe meet in a bid to help de-escalate Middle East crisis

Leaders of Jordan and southern Europe meet in a bid to help de-escalate Middle East crisis
Updated 58 min 42 sec ago
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Leaders of Jordan and southern Europe meet in a bid to help de-escalate Middle East crisis

Leaders of Jordan and southern Europe meet in a bid to help de-escalate Middle East crisis
  • Jordan’s King Abdullah will join the leaders of the so-called MED9 — including Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Slovenia, Portugal and Croatia
  • Leaders will also focus on helping clinch a ceasefire deal between Israeli forces and Hamas in the Gaza strip

PAPHOS: The leaders of nine southern European Union countries and Jordan are meeting in Cyprus on Friday to come up with ways to de-escalate the crisis in the Middle East that is threatening to engulf Lebanon and trigger a wider humanitarian crisis.
Jordan’s King Abdullah will join the leaders of the so-called MED9 — including Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Slovenia, Portugal and Croatia — as well as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to brainstorm initiatives aimed at protecting Lebanese civilians caught in the crossfire between Israel and Hezbollah.
The leaders will also focus on helping clinch a ceasefire deal between Israeli forces and Hamas in the Gaza strip in line with a UN Security Council resolution adopted unanimously in June.
Cyprus’ government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said Thursday the Jordanian monarch’s presence at the meeting lends additional weight to the proceedings given his country’s role in helping peace efforts in the region.
The meeting comes amid reports of an international diplomatic effort to degrade Hezbollah’s political hold in Lebanon.
“We want the Lebanese people to decide who their leaders ought to be, bottom line, and that has been our position,” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Wednesday. “We certainly don’t want to dictate to the people of Lebanon who their leader is, and we’re not going to ... we want them to be able to do it absent a terrorist organization putting a gun to their head, which is the situation that Lebanon has been in for decades now.”
“Ultimately, we hope that Hezbollah is degraded enough that they are less of a force in Lebanese politics,” he added.
According to Letymbiotis, King Abdullah will also discuss with the leaders way of further bolstering his country’s relations with the EU. The Jordanian monarch and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides will put forward a joint proposal to create a regional firefighting hub in Cyprus through the permanent deployment of fire-fighting aircraft on the island nation to respond to regional emergencies.
Christodoulides will also raise EU efforts to deal with migration flows through the adoption a new asylum policy that would more evenly share the distribution of asylum seekers through all EU members. Cyprus is considered a front-line country that receives a significantly high numbers of asylum seekers relative to its population.
Climate change is also on the agenda as the east Mediterranean and the Middle East are considered particularly vulnerable areas to temperatures changes.
Christodoulides will also highlight Cyprus’ role in helping deliver humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza via a maritime corridor as well as a waystation for the repatriation of third-country nationals evacuated from Lebanon.
According to Letymbiotis, more than 2,400 third-country nationals from 20 countries have so far used Cyprus as a transfer point to their homeland.


Lebanon says new Israel attack wounds UN peacekeepers

Lebanon says new Israel attack wounds UN peacekeepers
Updated 11 October 2024
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Lebanon says new Israel attack wounds UN peacekeepers

Lebanon says new Israel attack wounds UN peacekeepers
  • Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati denounces attack as a crime
  • Watchtowers and main UNIFIL base in Ras Naqura and Sri Lankan battalion’s base targeted

BEIRUT: Lebanon on Friday condemned an Israeli attack that it said wounded United Nations peacekeepers in the country’s south, after state media reported a second such attack in as many days.

In a statement, the foreign ministry condemned “the targeting... carried out by the Israeli army” on the UN Interim Force in Lebanon.

It said the bombing targeted “watchtowers and the main UNIFIL base in Ras Naqura, and on the Sri Lankan battalion’s base, which led to a number of wounded.”

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati denounced what he said was an attack on the UNIFIL peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon on Friday as a crime.

He also said he had discussed efforts to reach a ceasefire in Lebanon with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The official National News Agency said an Israeli “Merkava tank targeted one of the UNIFIL towers on the main road linking Tyre and Naqura,” wounding personnel from a Sri Lankan battalion.

It added that “enemy forces” also “fired an artillery shell, targeting the main entrance of the UNIFIL command center in Naqura, leading to damage to the entrance.”

UNIFIL did not immediately respond to AFP requests for comment.

On Thursday, UN peacekeepers said Israeli fire on their headquarters in south Lebanon wounded two Blue Helmets, sparking condemnation from European members of the mission.

Israel acknowledged its forces had opened fire in the area, saying the Hezbollah militants on whom it is waging an escalating war operate near UN posts.

UNIFIL, which has about 10,000 peacekeepers stationed in south Lebanon, has called for a ceasefire since an escalation between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on September 23, after almost a year of cross-border fire.

The peacekeepers did not suffer serious injuries Thursday “but they remain in hospital,” UNIFIL had said, while a spokeswoman said those wounded were from Indonesia, a major contributor of troops to the force.


Spain’s PM Sanchez urges international community to stop selling weapons to Israel

Spain’s PM Sanchez urges international community to stop selling weapons to Israel
Updated 11 October 2024
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Spain’s PM Sanchez urges international community to stop selling weapons to Israel

Spain’s PM Sanchez urges international community to stop selling weapons to Israel
  • UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres condemns Israeli shooting of UNIFIL forces
  • UNIFIL has about 10,000 peacekeepers stationed in south Lebanon

MADRID: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Friday urged the international community to stop selling weapons to Israel as he condemned attacks by Israel’s armed forces against the United Nations’ peacekeeping force in Lebanon.

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres, Russia, China and Italy have similarly condemned Israeli forces for the attacks on the UN peacekeeping units.

Israeli forces fired at an observation post used by UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon on Friday, injuring two, a UN source said, the third day in a row peacekeepers have reported Israeli fire at their positions as Israel wages war on Hezbollah.

None of the Spanish soldiers who were part of the mission were hit, the Spanish Defense Ministry said on Friday.

Spain has deployed 650 peacekeepers in Lebanon and a Spanish general leads the mission.

“Let me at this point criticize and condemn the attacks that the Israeli armed forces are carrying out on the United Nations mission in Lebanon,” Sanchez, whose country has been critical of Israel in the recent escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, said after meeting Pope Francis at the Vatican.

Sanchez said Spain stopped selling weapons to Israel in October 2023 and urged the rest of the world to do the same to prevent further escalation in the region.

“I think it is urgent given what is happening in the Middle East that the international community stops exporting weapons to the Israeli government,” he said.

“I am telling Israel these incidents are intolerable,” the UN chief said.

Guterres warned Israel there must be no repeat of an “intolerable” incident in which its forces fired on peacekeepers in Lebanon, wounding two.

“There was naturally a reaction from many sides in solidarity with the peacekeepers that were wounded and in telling Israel very clearly that this incident is intolerable and cannot be repeated,” Guterres said after talks with Southeast Asian leaders at a summit in Laos.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it was “outraged” by what it said was an Israeli military attack on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon and demanded that Israel refrain from any “hostile actions” against them.

“Moscow is outraged by the actions of the Israeli military,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“The Russian side demands that it refrain from any hostile actions against the UNIFIL peacekeepers carrying out their mission in Lebanon in accordance with the existing mandate of the United Nations Security Council, and expresses its support and wishes the wounded a speedy recovery,” it said.

China statement

“China expresses grave concern and strong condemnation over the Israeli Defense Forces’ attack on UNIFIL positions and observation posts, which resulted in injuries to UNIFIL personnel,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said, referring to the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon.

UN peacekeepers said Israeli fire on their headquarters in south Lebanon Thursday left two Blue Helmets injured, sparking condemnation from European members of the mission.

Israel acknowledged its forces had opened fire in the area, saying the Hezbollah militants on whom it is waging an escalating war operate near UN posts.

Italy: This is a war crime

Israeli forces have acted illegally by shooting at positions used by UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said on Thursday, denouncing it as a possible war crime.

The UN peacekeeping mission known as UNIFIL is stationed in southern Lebanon to monitor hostilities along the demarcation line with Israel — an area that has seen serious clashes between Israeli troops and Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters.

“This was not a mistake and not an accident,” Crosetto told a news conference. “It could constitute a war crime and represented a very serious violation of international humanitarian law,” he said.

Crosetto said he had contacted his Israeli counterpart to protest and had also summonsed the Israeli ambassador to Italy to demand an explanation, which was not yet forthcoming.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Unlike some European countries, Italy has been highly supportive of Israel throughout its year-long war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Italy has traditionally supplied a large number of troops to UNIFIL, and although none of its contingent was injured this week, Crosetto said the Israeli actions would not be accepted.

Israel has sought to shift the UNIFIL peacekeepers away from the border, but Italy said it had no right to do so.

“I told the ambassador to tell the Israeli government that the United Nations and Italy cannot take orders from the Israeli government,” Crosetto said.

Israel acknowledged its forces had opened fire in the area, saying the Hezbollah militants on whom it is waging an escalating war operate near UN posts.

Italy, a major contributor of troops to the force, said the acts “could constitute war crimes” while Washington said it was “deeply concerned.”

UNIFIL, which has about 10,000 peacekeepers stationed in south Lebanon, has called for a ceasefire since an escalation between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on September 23, after a year of cross-border fire.