How sick is Algeria’s president?

A new industrial and security agreement signed between Saudi Arabia and Turkey leads the news in some Arab dailies (mostly those affiliated with Saudi Arabia), while others focus on the continuing violence in Syria and the buildup to Iran’s presidential elections in June.

“Prince Salman and Gul sign an industrial-security cooperation agreement,” reads the headline of the London-based daily Al-Hayat, featuring a photo of the Saudi crown prince and the Turkish president smiling as they meet in Ankara.

The paper reports that the meeting focused on the Syrian crisis and ways of solving it diplomatically in light of a certain rapprochement between Washington and Moscow.

Bekir Bozdağ, Turkey’s deputy prime minister, tells the Saudi-owned daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat that talks between Salman and Abdullah Gul were “excellent,” adding that the two countries should not only remain economically strong but militarily strong as well, “for their own security and the security of the region.”

Bozdağ adds that Riyadh and Ankara cannot afford to stand back and not act on the Syrian issue.

How sick is the Algerian president?

Conflicting reports regarding the health condition of Algerian President Abdul Aziz Bouteflika lead the front page of the London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi.

While the Algerian government insists that the president is fine and only resting in a French hospital, information coming out of France tells a different story.

Jewish French singer Enrico Macias tells Qatari newspaper Al-Arab that  he visited the Algerian president in his Parisian hospital and found him “in very bad condition,” unable even to speak. Jewish French historian Benjamin Stora adds that it is hard to claim that Bouteflika is even still alive, Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported.

Whatever the condition of Bouteflika, Al-Hayat columnist Randa Taqi A-Din writes an op-ed titled “the post-Bouteflika stage,” claiming that the Bouteflika era is, for all intents and purposes, over.

“The Algerian announcement regarding Bouteflika’s transfer to France is itself meant to prepare the Algerian people for the fact that his candidacy for another term as president has become impossible. The military establishment is now consulting and agreeing on various candidates to inherit Bouteflika,” writes Taqi A-Din.

Bouteflika was indeed selected as president by the all-powerful military establishment, but has personally advanced reconciliation with the Islamists, against the advise of some generals, creating his own power base in the country, she adds.

“Now, the military establishment must chose from among the modern personalities who are open to the world, who can lead change to an open economy and leave behind the old socialism that paralyzed the economy of this rich country of capable people, many of whom now live abroad… due to lack of domestic opportunities.”

Iraqi-Jordanian crisis follows diplomatic scuffle

A fist-fight involving Iraq’s ambassador to Jordan and other Iraqi diplomats during a conference on Saddam Hussein-era mass graves has prompted Jordanian civil society to demand the banishment of the ambassador who harmed “Jordanian honor.”

A number of pro-Saddam Jordanians protesting against the conference were assaulted with fists and chairs during the session, including by Iraqi ambassador Jawwad Abbas, the Dubai-based news channel Al-Arabiya reported. Iraq apologized for the incident on Wednesday, but that was not enough to satisfy Jordan’s workers’ unions who demanded the ambassador’s deportation.

The lead editorial in Al-Quds Al-Arabi writes that Jordanians had good reason to look up to Saddam and Iraqi diplomats had no justification to beat them up for that.

“A large segment of Iraqi society… has great admiration for deceased president Saddam Hussein, who for them embodies manliness, resilience and Arabness for his position opposing Israeli occupation and his support for martyrs’ families. He also helped Jordan by providing it with oil at symbolic prices, and above all for firing 39 missiles at Tel Aviv,” the editorial reads.

“It is therefore natural for this people to reject any abuse of the deceased president. What is not natural, and not diplomatic, and also immoral, is for clerks and security staff from the Iraqi Embassy in Amman to attack those protesters… the Iraqi Embassy in Amman knows full well that organizing such a conference will spark the anger of many, degrading their pride and political positions.”