{"id":35321,"date":"2019-03-14T06:53:50","date_gmt":"2019-03-14T06:53:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=35321"},"modified":"2019-03-14T06:53:50","modified_gmt":"2019-03-14T06:53:50","slug":"veteran-diplomat-set-to-guide-algerias-transition-after-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=35321","title":{"rendered":"Veteran diplomat set to guide Algeria\u2019s transition after protests"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nCAIRO:\u00a0Lakhdar Brahimi, the veteran diplomat who is expected to steer Algeria\u2019s political transition after mass protests, has won respect from foreign leaders and his country\u2019s political elite during his long career.<\/p>\n

\nBut his appointment may not go down well with protesters demanding rapid change. At 85, he is three years older than President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and from the same generation that has presided over Algerian politics since the 1954-62 war of independence against France.<\/p>\n

\nBouteflika yielded to the protests on Monday by postponing elections and dropping plans to stand for a fifth term. Brahimi is now likely to chair a conference planning Algeria\u2019s future, a government source said.<\/p>\n

\nA former foreign minister, Brahimi has carried out troubleshooting missions for the UN across several regions and mediated on some of the Middle East\u2019s thorniest conflicts.<\/p>\n

\nThough not directly or publicly involved in national politics, he is a heavyweight of Algeria\u2019s establishment, long viewed as a possible presidential candidate. He is close to Bouteflika. \u201cThe voice of the people has been heard,\u201d Brahimi said on state television after Bouteflika\u2019s announcement that he would not seek a new term.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cYoung people who took to the streets acted responsibly and gave a good image of the country. We must turn this crisis into a constructive process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nBouteflika has said his own final act will be to usher in a new system that will be in \u201cthe hands of a new generation of Algerians.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe \u201cinclusive and independent\u201d national conference that Brahimi is expected to head is tasked with drafting a new constitution and setting a date for elections by the end of 2019.<\/p>\n

\nIt is likely to include prominent war veterans as well as representatives of the protest movement, which has brought tens of thousands of people on to the streets since last month, political sources said.<\/p>\n

\nThe plan may struggle to win support, however. Large crowds turned out again in cities across Algeria on Wednesday, protesting against the extension of Bouteflika\u2019s term and calling for faster change.<\/p>\n

\nOn Wednesday, an AFP correspondent saw middle and high school teachers protesting alongside their students in central Algiers.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIt\u2019s important that we teachers mobilize,\u201d said Driss, a teacher at a high school in the Algerian capital. \u201cIt\u2019s about the future of our children.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe protesters carried signs saying: \u201cNo to the extension of a fourth term!\u201d<\/p>\n

\nBrahimi\u2019s career<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nEducated in Algeria and France, Brahimi launched his career during the independence war, representing the National Liberation Front (FLN) in Southeast Asia while Bouteflika and other future leaders joined the FLN on the home front.<\/p>\n

\nA career in the foreign service followed, including ambassadorial roles in the 1960s and 70s during Algeria\u2019s post-independence diplomatic heyday, when a youthful Bouteflika was foreign minister.<\/p>\n

\nBrahimi was foreign minister himself from 1991 to 1993, as Algeria slid into a civil conflict.<\/p>\n

\nFrom the 1980s, Brahimi served in multinational bodies, helping mediate an end to Lebanon\u2019s civil war for the Arab League in 1989-91, an experience he described as formative.<\/p>\n

\nHe spent six months heading the UN observer mission to South Africa before Nelson Mandela\u2019s election as president in 1994, and served twice as UN special envoy to Afghanistan, before and after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. In 2004, he was special envoy to Iraq.<\/p>\n

\nIn what was expected to be his final high-level mission, in 2012 he was named UN special envoy for Syria as the war there worsened, leading negotiations between Bashar Assad\u2019s regime and the Syrian opposition in Switzerland.<\/p>\n

\nBrahimi quit two years later, unable to break intra-Syrian and international deadlocks. He told the UN Security Council: \u201cI go with a heavy heart because so little was achieved.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nIn December 2018 Brahimi told Jeune Afrique magazine that he did not foresee a domestic crisis in Algeria.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CAIRO:\u00a0Lakhdar Brahimi, the veteran diplomat who is expected to steer Algeria\u2019s political transition after mass protests, has won respect from foreign leaders and his country\u2019s political elite during his long career. But his appointment may not go down well with protesters demanding rapid change. At 85, he is three years older than President Abdelaziz Bouteflika…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35321","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=35321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35321\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}