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Iran looking to exploit the crisis in Algeria, in another threat to the EU

Mar 15, 2019 11:00 am By Christine Douglass-Williams

A crisis in Algeria caused by a leadership vacuum with no prospects in sight is feared to be creating an opportunity for Iranian elements to hijack the country and “pose a dangerous strategic threat to Europe.”

“ Tens of thousands took to the streets, chanting “No to a fifth Bouteflika term” and “No to the mafia regime,” in the largest mass protests in Algeria since the 2011 Arab Spring…..on Monday, Algerian strongman and national hero President Abdelaziz Bouteflika dropped his bid to run for a fifth term.

Anytime mass uprisings happen near or in any majority Muslim country, the vacuum in leadership could be filled by the Muslim Brotherhood or some other powerful pro-jihad, pro-Sharia entity. In this case, Iran is that entity. Given the crisis in the EU that has already been sparked by the hijrah, and Turkish President Erdogan threatening to send millions more Muslim “refugees” into Europe, plus the dominance of the open-borders Left in Western Europe, the EU as we have known it is history.

“Algerian Crisis: Opportunity for Iran, Threat to Europe,” by Warren Reinsch, The Trumpet, March 13, 2019:

Tens of thousands took to the streets, chanting “No to a fifth Bouteflika term” and “No to the mafia regime,” in the largest mass protests in Algeria since the 2011 Arab Spring.

On Monday, Algerian strongman and national hero President Abdelaziz Bouteflika dropped his bid to run for a fifth term. “There will be no fifth term,” Mr. Bouteflika was quoted as saying. “There will be no presidential election on April 18.”

With no clear successor in sight, the leadership vacuum presents Iranian-backed radical Islamists with an opportunity to hijack the nation, which would pose a dangerous strategic threat to Europe.

On March 4, police forces in the capital of Algiers fired tear gas on protesters who were chanting “Bouteflika, get out!” In the neighborhood of Belouizad, an Islamist stronghold, demonstrators set fire to a social security office, causing clashes with the police.

In fear of the demonstrations erupting into a revolution, police and security forces backed down from using further force. Instead, it has maintained a watch on the protests and set up barriers to block main roads and contain the march.

“The students don’t want this situation, in which a mafia regime controls the state,” Algerian student Ben Sharif Hamadi told Jerusalem Post. “We will decide whether to escalate, including student strikes at every university if Bouteflika doesn’t end his candidacy for president.”

Mustapha Bouchachi, a member of the Mouwatna protest movement, told El-Hayat television, “There’s only one thing left for him to do–withdraw his candidacy and return home, if he wants to avoid a new bloodbath in Algeria.”

Now the demonstrators have their wish: Bouteflika will no longer run for president in the elections. But is this really the best for Algeria?

The Cause

Algeria is primed for a revolution. This is in large part due to a widening generation gap and an intensifying economic crisis.

About 90 percent of Algeria’s 42 million people live in its northern coastal region closer to Europe. According to the Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook, 29 percent of Algerians are under the age of 15, and 44 percent are younger than 25. According to Reuters, almost 70 percent (nearly 29 million) of the population is younger than 30.

This younger generation desperately wants a new generation of leadership. Because of their youth, they do not have an attachment to the older ruling elite, many of whom, including Bouteflika, are veterans of the Algerian War of Independence (1954–1962) in which Algeria won its independence from France. Yet there is not a credible candidate backed by the military who is not in his 70s or 80s.

Bouteflika managed to stay in power in Algeria during the 2011 Arab Spring protests that toppled Arab leaders in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia by using foreign reserves from its oil industry to boost state spending to address economic concerns……

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Filed Under: Algeria, Iran Tagged With: Mouwatna protest movement, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika


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Comments

  1. b.a. freeman says

    Mar 15, 2019 at 11:38 am

    with a power vacuum, it could be *any* of the OIC sharia states that decides to make a move. if memory serves, algeria is doing better than most of the non-oil-rich OIC s**thole nations, which makes it that much more attractive to them. in addition to the attraction of a stronger (than normal s**thole nation) economy, iran has a pressing need for another way to get around u.s. sanctions; both are undeniable incentives to act, but algeria is also overwhelmingly sunni; sunni and shia each see one another as apostates (i.e., they hold each other in the lowest regard, and consequently hate one another more than almost anybody else), so iran would have to back a sunni or a sunni group to act as a puppet, and be willing to hide that association from the public. the puppet, of course, would *have* to comply with iran’s orders, but if the word were to get out, the puppet would be finished (as in dead), and iran would lose all influence. it’s a lot of eggs to put into one basket, but they just might do it.

  2. gravenimage says

    Mar 15, 2019 at 9:15 pm

    Iran looking to exploit the crisis in Algeria, in another threat to the EU
    ……………..

    No surprise here…

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