Bouteflika will not attend Baghdad Arab Summit, source

Chairman of the National Assembly, Abdelkader Ben Saleh, will represent President Abdelaziz Bouteflika at the Arab summit to be hosted in the Iraqi capital Baghdad at the end of this month, Echorouk sources said.

The sources denied that Algeria had boycotted the summit for special reasons related to the place of hosting the summit, but due to a matter related to ‭the President  without giving details about‭ it ‭. ‬

Same sources asserted that Algeria will participate with an important delegation chaired by the president of the National Assembly Abdelkader Ben Saleh, adding that the absence of the President has nothing to do with what is reported by some of the media which claim that the President will boycott the summit; ‮ “‬Algeria will not boycott Baghdad summit “.

Previously, ‬several Arab media reported in the last two days, that President Abdelaziz Bouteflika will be absent because Algeria objected on the place of the summit, and that Algeria would be “the first to boycott” or ” be absent”, especially after the series of explosions that come a few days before the date of the Arab Summit, which hit and killed about 60 people and wounded more than 240 others, due to car bombs and explosives in different parts of the country. However; the Ambassador Qais Azzawi, Permanent Representative of Iraq to the Arab League, said that the bombings which took place in some Iraqi cities will not affect the Arab summit in Baghdad at the end of the month, and that the bombings that Iraq witnessed took place in areas far from the Green Zone, where the headquarters of the summit, adding that all regions are secured, especially the way of the summit, from the airport and place of residence of the delegations, journalists, kings and presidents and ending at the Palace of Conferences, and asserting that these places  will not be targeted,  before reminding that the bombings have no negative consequences on the summit “Iraq usually noticed such attacks carried out by terrorist groups, therefor Iraq prepared a large security plan and deployed more than 100.000 armed troops, including police and security services to ensure the security of Arab presidents ‭and kings who will participat ‭ ‬ t in the Arab Summit on‬‬ March 29 in Baghdad ‭. ‬

The same sources revealed, that the Algerian government commissioned the Algerian ambassador to Baghdad to contact the 14 Algerian prisoners in Iraq directly, adding that actions are continuing in this regard with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the departments in Iraq, and in the next few days he will visit ‭ them ‭ in ‭ Prisons ‬ ‭