PT Leader Louiza Hanoune received by Army Chief of Staff General Ahmed Gaid Salah

The Secretary General of the Workers’ Party (PT), Louiza Hanoune, was received on Thursday in Algiers by vice-defense minister and Army chief of staff of the National Popular Army, General Ahmed Gaid Salah.

This was announced by Louiza Hanoune herself in a declaration read out today at her party’s premises in Algiers.

However, Mrs Hanoune neither explained the reasons behind such a meeting nor the contents of the discussions she had with General Ahmed Gaid Salah.

Officially, this was the first meeting of the kind between a political party leader and a top officer of the National Popular Army (ANP).

Furthermore, Louiza Hanoune harked back in her declaration to the letter she sent recently to the head of state, Abdellaziz Bouteflika, urging him to express himself about the current juncture facing Algeria describing it as « dangerous » for the country.

On this very point, Louiza Hanoune said, “we’ve been reassured by President’s Bouteflika’s statement firmly castigating the unacceptable violent diatribes against the valourous National Popular Army’s institutions and lashed out by the same token at Amar Saadani for fuelling such a damaging situation.”

However, Louiza Hanoune didn’t identify the “real authors and initiators hidden behind the scenes” who had prodded the FLN party Secretary General, Amar Saadani, to hit out shamelessly against the DRS intelligence services Chief, General Mohamed Mediène also called General “Toufik”.

She asserted that Saadani was a “underling” used by some shadowy and nefarious circles in orchestrating the recent low-down attacks against the solid credibility and high duties of the country’s military institution.

For Louiza Hanoune, trying to foist the responsibility on the military institution for last year’s bloody terrorist attack on the southern Tiguentourine gas facility is tantamount to exonerating the perpetrators of the horrendous terrorist exactions which wracked Algeria for so many years, she underscored.

With regard to next April’s presidential elections in Algeria, Louiza Hanoune affirmed that everything should be done so that the upcoming electoral contest could be held in a serene, smooth and calm atmosphere.