Abdelaziz Belkhadem

The FLN's hold was weaker than predicted reflecting a bad few months for its Secretary General Premier Abdelaziz Belkhadem and the object of all its affections Boutef...

Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem was at a meeting in the Hôtel Auressi at the time and was visibly shaken when he visited the scene...

Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem's star has waned unexpectedly in recent months following a shift in strategy at the presidency and among key décideurs on the thorny issue of how to handle radical Islam...

Bouteflika has had to rely even more on Abdelaziz Belkhadem the former Foreign Minister who is now Secretary General of the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) ranked as a Minister of State...

Among civilian politicians the most prominent (and also close to Bouteflika) is Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) Secretary General and Minister of State Abdelaziz Belkhadem who comes from the ruling establishment's radical Arab/Islamic wing...

He and his allies such as presidency Secretary General Larbi Belkheir Foreign Affairs Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem and Union Générale des Travailleurs Algériens (UGTA) leader Abdelmajid Sidi Saïd used the state machine to crush his main rival former Premier Ali Benflis...

Others in the President's inner circle include Agriculture Minister Saïd Barkat who has worked with Foreign Affairs Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem to win back the FLN; Culture and Communications Minister Khalida Messaoudi Toumi once a torchbearer of liberal values now a target for her former friends as a fierce campaigner for the Boutef way; and former Transport Minister Abdelmalek Sellal who left government to run Boutef's campaign...

Since then FLN members expelled by Benflis including Boutef-loyalists Said Barkat (Agriculture Minister) and Abdelaziz Belkhadem (Foreign Affairs) have been fighting a rearguard action...

Boutef versus Benflis Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem from the FLN's Arab/Islamist wing is mobilising for Bouteflika with groupes de redressement (cells in provincial and national party structures) to counter the pro-Benflis cadres who are capitalising on their victories at the party congress...

Some thought he would choose Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem from the FLN's Arab nationalist wing a vocal critic of the Iraq war...