{"id":30748,"date":"2019-01-27T03:23:41","date_gmt":"2019-01-27T03:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=30748"},"modified":"2019-01-27T03:23:41","modified_gmt":"2019-01-27T03:23:41","slug":"iran-cries-destabilization-as-france-threatens-new-sanctions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=30748","title":{"rendered":"Iran cries \u2018destabilization\u2019 as France threatens new sanctions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nALGIERS: Algeria\u2019s main conservative party, the Movement for the Society of Peace (MSP), said on Saturday it has decided to take part in April\u2019s presidential election.<\/p>\n

\nDuring the night of Friday to Saturday \u201cthe consultative council decided by an overwhelming majority to take part in the presidential election and to present Dr. Abderrazak Makri as the party\u2019s candidate,\u201d the MSP\u2019s head of communications Abdellah Bouadji told AFP.<\/p>\n

\nPresenting itself as moderate, the MSP had supported aging incumbent President Abdelaziz Bouteflika within a governing alliance, before going its own way in 2012. Observers say if Bouteflika runs again he is set to win, as the opposition is divided into Islamists and secular parties.<\/p>\n

\nBouteflika, 81, who uses a wheelchair and has rarely been seen in public since a stroke in 2013, is due to complete a fourth term in office on April 28. The election is set for April 18. By law, would-be candidates now have until March 4 to register with the constitutional court.<\/p>\n

\nDespite his advanced age and poor health, some of Bouteflika\u2019s supporters have called for him to stand again. But the president himself is yet to make his plans clear.<\/p>\n

\nAhead of the last presidential election in 2014, Bouteflika only declared his intention to run a few days ahead of the deadline.<\/p>\n

\nDespite his advanced age and poor health, there have been calls from his supporters for him to stand for a fifth term.<\/p>\n

\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nFrozen politics<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nUncertainty over whether Bouteflika will stand for re-election has frozen Algerian politics for months. No candidate of note has thrown their hat into the ring.<\/p>\n

\nAlgerian politics is notoriously opaque with the winner of every multiparty presidential election pre-selected by a shadowy elite, beginning in 1995 with victory by retired Gen. Liamine Zeroual.<\/p>\n

\nFor this year\u2019s election, the membership of the kingmaking elite has changed.<\/p>\n

\nBouteflika has proved himself a wily political survivor, navigating Arab Spring-inspired riots in 2011 by promising reforms that were never enacted and by playing on fears of a repeat of Algeria\u2019s 1991-2002 civil war.<\/p>\n

\nBouteflika\u2019s stewardship was key to the country\u2019s emergence from that conflict, as he introduced a civil reconciliation program that offered partial amnesty to\u00a0 extremists.<\/p>\n

\nAnalysts said Bouteflika\u2019s announcement of the election date will ease concerns that the vote might get postponed.<\/p>\n

\nIn 1991, the army cancelled elections which an Islamist party was set to win, triggering almost a decade of civil war that killed some 200,000 people.<\/p>\n

\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nFlooding kills five<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nFive people died after being swept away by flood waters as a cold snap in the Maghreb brought snow to several of the country\u2019s regions, Algeria\u2019s civil protection unit said on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cAll the victims have been retrieved over the last 48 hours after being swept away by waters in Annaba, El-Tarf, Tizi Ouzou and Tipaza,\u201d the civil protection body said.<\/p>\n

\nSalvage operations took place in more than 17 areas and around 100 people have been rescued in the last 24 hours.<\/p>\n

\nA total of 33 roads remain blocked in over 10 regions because of snow, the civil protection unit said, adding \u201csnow clearing operations are progressing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nElsewhere in North Africa, neighboring Tunisia\u2019s interior ministry said on Friday two people were killed by flooding and cold weather, after heavy snowfall.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ALGIERS: Algeria\u2019s main conservative party, the Movement for the Society of Peace (MSP), said on Saturday it has decided to take part in April\u2019s presidential election. During the night of Friday to Saturday \u201cthe consultative council decided by an overwhelming majority to take part in the presidential election and to present Dr. Abderrazak Makri as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":30749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}