Region

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Washington called Tuesday for “a holding period” in the Middle East peace process after a deadline for reaching a deal expired with hopes dashed and Israel and the Palestinians bitterly divided.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has no regrets about the energy he poured into his failed Middle East peace bid and is ready to dive back in again if asked, US officials said.

As the final date for the nine-month negotiation period came and went on Tuesday, peace hopes appeared more remote than ever with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas locked in a tactical game of finger-pointing, and US attempts to broker an extension in tatters.

After more than a year of intensive shuttle diplomacy by Kerry, Washington was reluctant to admit failure, acknowledging only a “pause” in the dialogue.

“The original negotiating period was set to run until April 29th, today. There’s nothing special about that date now,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters in Washington.

But Kerry has “no regrets about the time he spent investing in this process”.

“We’ve reached a point... where a pause is necessary... a holding period, where parties will figure out what they want to do next,” Psaki said.

The Israeli and Palestinian leaders were quick to say they were open to resuming talks — but only under certain conditions likely to be unacceptable to the other side.

“If we want to extend the negotiations there has to be a release of prisoners... a settlement freeze, and a discussion of maps and borders for three months, during which there must be a complete halt to settlement activity,” Abbas said.

But a senior Israeli government official said there would be no further talks unless Abbas renounced a reconciliation pact signed last week with Gaza’s Islamist Hamas rulers.

Back to square one 

Analysts said the end of the negotiating period meant the situation would simply go back to square one.

“We’re back to where we started,” said Jonathan Spyer, senior researcher at the Global Research in International Affairs Centre near Tel Aviv.

The Palestinians, he said, were likely to continue with their “strategy of political warfare” by seeking global recognition for their promised state, in a bid “to isolate Israel in international bodies and pressure it into making concessions”.

Israel, Spyer said, was unlikely to make any sweeping gestures but merely seek to maintain the status quo by seeking to either “ignore, or reverse” the Palestinian diplomatic moves.

Other Israeli analysts said the collapse of the talks was a direct result of Israel’s relentless settlement construction on land which was the subject of negotiations.

Figures published on Tuesday by settlement watchdog Peace Now showed that in parallel with the negotiations, the Israeli government approved plans for nearly 14,000 new settler housing units, describing it as an “unprecedented number”.

Meanwhile, a mosque was among several Palestinian structures destroyed by the Israeli army Tuesday in a West Bank village for having been built without permits, concurring sources said.

Poor choice of words 

As the curtain fell on the talks, Kerry found himself at the centre of a storm after reportedly saying that if Israel didn’t seize the opportunity to make peace soon, it risked becoming an “apartheid state” with second-class citizens.

“Apartheid” refers to South Africa’s 1948-1994 oppressive and racially segregated social system.

In an apology issued overnight, Kerry said he had never called Israel “an apartheid state” but he did not deny using the term, suggesting only that he used a poor choice of words.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat accused Netanyahu’s government of using the talks as a cover to entrench its hold on the territories.

“Rather than using nine months to achieve a two-state solution, the government of Prime Minister Netanyahu has used every possible tool in order to consolidate its apartheid regime,” he said.

In a apparent shift in the US policy, Psaki appeared to suggest that Washington may be prepared to accept a reconciliation government providing it stood by principles such as non-violence and recognising the state of Israel.

“If the unity government accepts certain principles, then it hasn’t been our position to oppose that,” Psaki said.

But she stressed: “They haven’t indicated a desire to abide by the principles — Hamas, that is.”

However, US lawmakers and officials warned Tuesday that Palestinian leaders risk forfeiting millions of dollars in US aid if they press ahead with plans to form a unity government including militant Hamas members.

“Let me be utterly clear about our policy towards Hamas,” Assistant Secretary for the Near East Anne Patterson told a House hearing.

“No US governmental money will go into any government that includes Hamas until Hamas accepts the Quartet conditions. And that’s renouncing violence, recognising previous agreements and most explicitly recognising Israel’s right to exist.”

BEIRUT — A Syrian government air strike hit a school Wednesday in an opposition-held district of the northern city of Aleppo, killing at least 19 people, including 10 children, activists reported.

A missile slammed into the Ein Jalout School in eastern part of Aleppo as teachers and students were preparing an exhibit of children’s drawings depicting Syria at war, activists said.

Activist videos of the scene showed bulldozers removing rubble from the smashed building, with the school’s name visible. They also showed some of the children’s drawings and paintings. One showed a hanging skeleton surrounded by skulls with a child nearby being shot by a gunman in a ditch. The child has a speech bubble written above her head in broken English that partly reads: “Syria will still free.”

In another video by opposition activists, the bodies of 10 children wrapped in brown and blue sheets are seen on the floor of a hospital ward. A woman’s uncontrollable screams are heard in the background.

The videos appeared genuine and corresponded to Associated Press reporting of the events.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which covers the conflict through a network of activists on the ground, said at least 19 people were killed in the strike, including 10 children. The local Aleppo Media Centre put the toll at 25 killed, most of them children.

The United Nations’ children agency said in a statement it was “outraged by the latest wave of indiscriminate attacks perpetrated against schools and other civilian targets across Syria”.

Thousands of Syrian children have died in Syria’s three-year-old conflict, which began as an uprising against Assad’s rule, but has now become a civil war that has killed over 150,000 people and displaced millions.

Parts of the two-storey Ein Jalout School appeared to have been completely smashed, according to the videos, which showed blood splatters, twisted metal and children’s items, like a little red-heart shaped box. A man speaking in one of the videos said the exhibition was for drawings by children from schools around the area.

An opposition activist from Aleppo now based in Berlin provided the AP with a copy of the invitation to the exhibition to confirm it was taking place. Mohammed Neser, the activist, said he feared that his colleagues who organised the show were now dead.

“I haven’t been able to get in touch with them,” he said.

Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, has been divided between government forces and rebels for nearly two years, with constant fighting doing little to change the balance on the ground. Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad have been carrying out air strikes and dropping crude barrel bombs in rebel-held districts in the eastern part of the city, at times hitting schools, mosques and markets.

Rebels have hit back with mortar strikes and car bombs.

Meanwhile Wednesday, mortar fire killed three people near the Central Prison complex in Damascus, state news agency SANA said. A day earlier, a mortar strike in Damascus and a double car bombing in the central city of Homs killed at least 54 people.

In a statement Wednesday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned those attacks, calling them “horrendous acts of terror against innocent civilians”.

Also Wednesday, another six Syrians submitted their candidacy applications to run in presidential elections slated for June 3, bringing the number of contenders so far to 17, Parliament Speaker Jihad Laham said.

Assad announced earlier this week that he will run for re-election. The others who are seeking to run are all unknowns.

In a televised campaign-style appearance Tuesday, Assad and his wife Asma met with parents who lost their only sons in the conflict.

Opposition activists and Western countries have condemned the elections as a sham. Assad is widely expected to win his third seven-year term since coming to power in 2000, and the vote is seen as an attempt to give him a veneer of electoral legitimacy amid the war.

BAGHDAD — Iraqis defied a rash of attacks that killed seven people to vote Wednesday in the country’s first general election since US troops withdrew, with premier Nouri Maliki proclaiming “certain” victory.

Queues formed from early morning at tightly guarded polling stations despite a surge of violence in the runup targeting campaign gatherings and early voting by security personnel.

The stream of voters slowed later in the morning but the tempo was expected to pick up in the afternoon before polls close at 6:00pm (1500 GMT).

Iraqis have a long list of grievances, from poor public services to rampant corruption and high unemployment, but the month-long campaign has centred on Maliki’s bid for a third term and dramatically deteriorating security.

Maliki encouraged voters to turn out in large numbers and voiced confidence he would return to power after casting his ballot at a VIP polling centre in the Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone.

“Today is a big success, and even better than the last elections, even though there is no foreign soldier on Iraqi soil,” the premier said.

He called for a move away from national unity governments towards ones of political majority, and confidently told journalists: “Our victory is certain, but we are waiting to see the size of our victory.”

The runup to the election, the first parliamentary poll since US forces departed in December 2011, has seen Baghdad and other major cities swamped in posters and bunting.

Parties have staged rallies and candidates have angrily debated on television, though appeals to voters have largely been made on sectarian, ethnic or tribal grounds rather than on political and social issues.

Analysts had voiced fears much of the electorate would stay at home rather than risk being targeted by militants, who killed nearly 90 people over the two previous days.

Fresh attacks were launched soon after polls opened on Wednesday morning, killing seven people and wounding 24.

Security officials reported more than 40 attacks in total, including mortar fire, roadside bombs and a suicide blast, all targeting polling stations or voters on their way to them in northern and western Iraq.

North of Baghdad, militants seized a polling station and blew it up, after expelling election staff and those waiting to vote.

But many Iraqis said they were determined to vote despite the unrest, voicing disdain for the current crop of elected officials.

‘Change for my children’ 

“I came to vote for change for my children and my grandchildren, to change the future and the situation of the country for the better,” said Abu Ashraf, 67, a retired accountant who declined to give his full name.

“It is necessary to change most of the politicians because they have done nothing, and they spend years on private conflicts,” he said after voting in west Baghdad.

Nearby, 19-year-old student Noor Raad said she had voted “to change the politicians, because most of them have not worked to improve the situation.”

Others, however, voiced confidence in Maliki and his Shiite-led government.

“If we are not coming to vote, who is going to come [to power]?” asked Umm Jabbar, who had queued outside a polling station in the Shiite shrine city of Najaf since 6am.

“Will the enemy come? I am voting for Maliki, because he is a thorn in the eyes of the enemy.”

More than 750 people have been killed this month alone, as violence has hit its highest levels since a brutal sectarian conflict killed tens of thousands in 2006 and 2007.

Militants have controlled the town of Fallujah since the beginning of the year, preventing polling from being held in parts of mainly Sunni Arab Anbar province, west of Baghdad.

Maliki’s critics have accused him of concentrating power and marginalising the Sunni minority, and say public services have not sufficiently improved during his eight-year rule.

The 63-year-old contends the violence is fuelled by the civil war in neighbouring Syria and has accused Sunni Saudi Arabia and Qatar of backing insurgents.

SANAA — Yemen said on Wednesday it had arrested a militant cell that had been planning to kidnap the United Arab Emirates’ charge d’affaires, after a string of abductions that have targeted Westerners and diplomats in the country.

Interior ministry spokesman, Major General Mohammed Al Qaidy, said security forces arrested the six members of what it called a terrorist cell a month ago, and found weapons, fake passports and fake Yemeni currency in their possession.

“The gang members confessed that they were going to receive a reward of 5 million riyals ($1.33 million) and a four-wheel drive car if they managed to kidnap the UAE’s charge d’affaires,” Qaidy told a news conference.

It was not immediately clear who had promised the ransom but kidnapping is common in Yemen. It is sometimes carried out by militants specifically targeting Westerners but is also used as a tactic by tribesmen to resolve disputes with the government, and by opportunists hoping to sell hostages on to other groups.

Home to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, southern separatists and rebels in the north, the US-allied country, which shares a long border with oil-exporting heavyweight Saudi Arabia, is struggling to impose security across its territory.

The army on Tuesday launched a major offensive to root out Al Qaeda militants in two southern strongholds, following air strikes earlier this month that Yemen said targeted the militants and killed some 65 of them in central and southern parts of Yemen.

Qaidy said security forces also arrested another three-person cell that had made threats against the Saudi embassy.

A Saudi diplomat taken hostage in the southern port city of Aden in 2012 is still missing.

In the weeks between March 1 and April 23, 148 people were killed by “terrorist acts”, including army and security forces, citizens and social personalities, Qaidy said.

DOHA — Qatar’s much-delayed new international airport, built at a cost of $15.5 billion, welcomed its first commercial flight on Wednesday.

A flydubai budget airline jet carrying passengers from Dubai touched down at midday at the Hamad International Airport.

The flight was preceded by a Qatar Airways plane that landed at the airport with four ministers and civil aviation officials on board.

Qatar’s Civil Aviation Authority chief Abdul Aziz Mohammad Al Noaimi told AFP that the seaside airport, whose construction began in 2007 with 50,000 workers, was built at a cost $15.5 billion.

Initially, the facility will only be open to 10 airlines, including flydubai, with other carriers including Qatar Airways expected to use it from May 27, airport officials say.

Named after Qatar’s former emir, the airport had originally been scheduled to open on April 1 last year, but this was delayed after it failed to meet new security standards.

The airport, which replaces the old Doha International, will initially be able to handle 30 million passengers per year, and its sponsors hope to expand that figure to 50 million by the time work finishes in 2020.

It spreads over 29 square kilometres, and features two runways stretching 4.85 kilometres and 4.25 kilometres.

The terminal has a total surface of 60 hectares.

Qatar, a wealthy oil and gas producer, has made huge investments in infrastructure to establish itself as an international hub before it hosts the football World Cup in 2022.

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s parliament failed Wednesday to elect a president, for a second time in a week, raising fears the post will remain vacant amid tensions over neighbouring war-torn Syria.

The parliament failed to reach the quorum needed to vote for a successor to incumbent President Michel Sleiman, after the Damascus ally Hezbollah bloc refused to attend Wednesday’s session.

Parliament speaker “Nabih Berri has set the date of May 7 as a new date to hold a parliamentary session, given the lack of quorum on Wednesday”, said the official National News Agency.

Deputies are faced with a choice between Samir Geagea, a fierce opponent of the Syrian government and its ally Hizbollah, and Michel Aoun, who is backed by the Lebanese Shiite movement.

The animosity between the pair dates back to the civil war that ravaged Lebanon from 1975 to 1990.

Sleiman’s term expires on May 25 and the parliament has until then to elect his successor. But if it fails to do so, the government will assume all executive powers, a scenario Lebanon endured between 1988 and 2007.

Over the years, the choice of president in Lebanon has been dictated by foreign powers, particularly Syria, which dominated the Mediterranean country for nearly three decades.

Despite the withdrawal of its troops from Lebanon in 2005 and its own three-year conflict, Syria still has a say in Lebanon, largely through Hezbollah, whose forces have been fighting alongside those of the Damascus regime.

Hizbollah’s arsenal and its involvement in the Syrian war are the main bones of contention between Lebanon’s rival political camps supported by Damascus and Tehran on one side, and Washington and Riyadh on the other.

Analysts say that this lack of consensus between the factions and their foreign sponsors is likely to leave Lebanon without a president beyond May 25.

“I am inclined to assume that we will not have presidential election by the end of... the constitutional period” because the Hizbollah camp cannot accept Geagea and its March 14 rivals cannot accept Aoun, said Hilal Khashan, political science professor at the American University of Beirut.

“Lebanon does not feature prominently neither for Saudi Arabia nor for Iran right now,” said Khashan. “Even the US is not even interested in Lebanon, but in other issues in the region.”

The presidency is by tradition reserved for a candidate from the Christian Maronite community, in a multi-confessional system unique in the Arab world.

But the post is largely ceremonial, and Khashan said it is thus not a “burning issue” for Riyadh and Tehran, already opposed to each other over Syria, Yemen and Iran’s nuclear programme.

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia ended military excercises Tuesday along the borders of Iraq and Kuwait, as well as other regions, in what the media described as the largest in the kingdom’s history.

“We are preparing our armed forces to protect” the nation, daily Al Eqtisadiah website quoted general staff chief Lieutenant General Hussein Al Qabeel as saying.

The armed forces “do not aim to attack anyone as this is not our wise government’s policy”, Qabeel added.

English-language daily Arab News said “tens of thousands of soldiers, backed by military jets, helicopters and ships as well as tankers and anti-missile systems, are participating” in the “largest military exercise in the kingdom’s history.”

The operation, in which elite National Guard and interior ministry units also took part, was carried out in the eastern, southern and northern regions, Al Eqtisadiah website aleqt.com reported.

It “aims at increasing the level of training and testing the capability of our armed forces in deterring any attack from any of these sides”, the daily quoted Qabeel as saying.

In 1990, Iraqi president Saddam Hussein’s forces invaded and occupied Kuwait. They were expelled the following year in the Gulf War.

Some of the exercises took place in Hafr Al Batin, which borders Iraq.

Relations have been strained between predominantly Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Saddam’s successor, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, whose Shiite-led government is backed by Tehran.

In March, Maliki charged that Saudi Arabia and neighbouring Qatar were supporting terrorism worldwide, which drew harsh criticism from the kingdom, Iran’s rival across the Gulf.

In November, Iraqi pro-Iranian Shiite group Jaish Al Mukhtar claimed it had fired six mortar rounds into a remote area of northeastern Saudi Arabia as a “warning” to the kingdom.

Meanwhile, three Saudi soldiers were killed by gunmen who fired from across the border with Yemen to the south, which is frequently crossed by smugglers and by Islamists seeking to join Al Qaeda militants in the impoverished nation.

In 2009, Saudi forces fought a war against Shiite Houthi rebels on the Yemeni border.

The rebels, accused by Sanaa of being backed by Iran, frequently clash with Yemeni troops as they try to extend their influence over more areas in the north and towards the capital.

JUBA — Top United Nations rights officials vowed Wednesday to do everything in their power to prevent conflict-wracked South Sudan from sliding into genocide, and warned the warring factions they would be held responsible if famine breaks out.

Firing off a damning attack against South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar, the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said she was “appalled by the apparent lack of concern about the risk of famine displayed by both leaders.”

The comments came after Pillay, accompanied by a special genocide envoy, held talks with the rival leaders, and a day after the UN made a desperate appeal for a one-month truce to avert a famine and humanitarian disaster.

“To the survivors of the genocide, we owe a pledge to take all possible measures within our power to protect populations from another Rwanda, there is no excuse for inaction,” UN envoy for the prevention of genocide Adama Dieng told reporters.

“It is clear that the conflict has taken a dangerous trajectory, and civilians are being deliberately targeted based on their ethnicity and perceived political affiliation,” he said in a joint news conference with Pillay.

The four-month-old civil war in South Sudan, which only won independence from Sudan in 2011, has already left thousands of people dead — and possibly tens of thousands — with at least 1.2 million people forced to flee their homes.

A ceasefire signed in January is in tatters, with tens of thousands of people sheltering in UN bases following a wave of ethnic massacres and other war crimes including rapes, the forced recruitment of children and killings in hospitals, churches and mosques.

“The deadly mix of recrimination, hate speech, and revenge killings that has developed relentlessly over the past four and a half months seems to be reaching boiling point,” Pillay said.

She said there were now some 9,000 children fighting in the country on both sides.

Risk of famine 

“The country’s leaders, instead of seizing their chance to steer their impoverished and war-battered young nation to stability and greater prosperity, have instead embarked on a personal power struggle that has brought their people to the verge of catastrophe,” she said.

“The prospect of widespread hunger and malnutrition being inflicted on hundreds of thousands of their people, because of their personal failure to resolve their differences peacefully, did not appear to concern them very much.”

She warned Kiir and Machar that “if famine does take hold later in the year... responsibility for it will lie squarely with the country’s leaders, who agreed to a cessation of hostilities in January and then failed to observe it themselves”.

Dieng also called on Kiir and Machar to take “higher responsibility” for those under their command.

The UN visit, which wrapped up Wednesday, comes as US Secretary of State John Kerry is also heading to the region.

The United States was instrumental in helping South Sudan gain independence, and Kerry, who was to arrive in Ethiopia late Wednesday, was expected to try to press the negotiators at slow-moving peace talks to end the fighting.

Earlier this month, the rebels were blamed for the killings of hundreds of people in the oil hub of Bentiu, and a pro-government mob killed dozens of civilians in an attack on a UN base in Bor.

The unrest broke out on December 15 in what Kiir called a coup attempt by Machar, his sacked vice president. The conflict has taken on an ethnic dimension, pitting Kiir’s Dinka tribe against militia forces from Machar’s Nuer people.

Dieng said the country “should not be led down this slippery slope”.

“I beseech everyone, the South Sudanese, your leaders, the regional and international community, to take immediate measures to end the violence and uphold our collective responsibility to protect the populations of South Sudan from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.”

Last week the UN Security Council brandished the threat of sanctions against both the rebels and government forces.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is “strongly concerned and will make sure that never again what happened in Rwanda happens in another place in this continent”, Dieng said, adding that “the world is watching”.

WASHINGTON — US Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate subcommittee that oversees foreign aid, said on Tuesday he would not approve sending funds to the Egyptian military, denouncing a “sham trial” in which a court sentenced 683 people to death.

“I’m not prepared to sign off on the delivery of additional aid for the Egyptian military,” the Vermont Democrat said in a speech on the Senate floor, explaining why he would hold up the $650 million. “I’m not prepared to do that until we see convincing evidence the government is committed to the rule of law.”

The Obama administration has been grappling for months with how to deal with Egypt, one of its most important allies in the Middle East. The Pentagon said last week it would deliver 10 Apache attack helicopters and $650 million to Egypt’s military, relaxing a partial suspension of aid imposed after Egypt’s military ousted President Mohamed Mursi on July 3 and violently suppressed protesters.

On Monday, an Egyptian court sentenced the leader of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and 682 supporters to death, intensifying a crackdown on the Islamist movement that could trigger protests and political violence ahead of an election next month.

Leahy said he would be watching the situation in Egypt with “growing dismay” even if he were not chairman of the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee, denouncing “a sham trial lasting barely an hour”.

“It’s a flaunting of human rights by the Egyptian government. It’s an appalling abuse of the justice system, which is fundamental to any democracy. Nobody, nobody, can justify this. It does not show democracy. It shows a dictatorship run amok. It is a total violation of human rights,” Leahy said.

The Apaches are not subject to congressional approval.

Washington normally sends $1.5 billion in mostly military aid to Egypt each year, but a US law — written by Leahy — bars funding governments brought to power via military coup.

The Obama administration wavered for months over whether to call events in Cairo a coup before cutting aid off in October to demonstrate unhappiness after the ouster of Mursi, who had emerged from the Muslim Brotherhood to become Egypt’s first democratically elected leader.

The Pentagon, State Department and White House had no immediate response to Leahy’s remarks.

However, US Secretary of State John Kerry noted at an appearance on Tuesday with Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy that he would be discussing with Fahmy “disturbing decisions within the judicial process — the court system — that have raised serious challenges for all of us”.

Fahmy, who was visiting Washington, said Egypt’s judicial system was independent of the government and said he was confident due process was allowed in the courts.

ALGIERS — Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika “flunked” a test of his oral skills at his inauguration, newspapers said Tuesday, raising doubts about the stroke victim’s ability to effectively carry out his duties.

Sitting in a wheelchair, the ailing 77-year-old Bouteflika struggled to recite the oath of office and give a speech at his televised inauguration on Monday, following his re-election for a fourth term.

“Bouteflika flunked his oral,” the leading El Watan newspaper said in an editorial.

“Handicapped by illness, he was forced to tap into his meagre resources to pass this final and challenging oral exam.”

Bouteflika, who was also in a wheelchair when he cast his ballot in the April 17 election, has hardly been seen in public since the mini-stroke that confined him to hospital in Paris for three months last year.

“Algerians who followed the tragicomic event on television saw images that gave little reassurance on the state of the health of Bouteflika, who is to preside over the country’s destiny for the next five years,” said El Watan.

The El Khabar daily put the issue on its front page, describing Bouteflika’s speech as “incomplete”.

It noted that after reciting the 94-word oath in Arabic, the president stumbled on his words during his speech, a copy of which was distributed to journalists at the ceremony, which lasted 30 minutes.

The French-language Liberte described the swearing-in ceremony as “expeditious” and said Bouteflika “only read the preamble of the confusing speech” which was 12 pages long.

“Yesterday’s performance reminded us, once again, of the stubborn issue of the president’s capacity to effectively undertake his duties,” it said.

“The regime can say everything is in order, [but] the medical debate continues with its political ramifications.”

Meanwhile, the youth protest movement Barakat (Enough) said it sent a letter to the constitutional council on Tuesday calling for Bouteflika to be impeached over his inability to rule.

The request was based on footage showing Bouteflika had “failed to read all his text and only one paragraph of the 29 in the speech,” Barakat’s Amina Bouraoui told AFP.

Bouteflika won 81.5 per cent of votes in an election marred by low turnout and claims of fraud by his opponents, including main rival Ali Benflis, who received 12.2 per cent.

One of the few remaining veterans of the war of independence against France, Bouteflika first came to power in 1999, but has been dogged by ill health and corruption scandals.

He nevertheless remains popular with many Algerians, who credit him with helping to end the devastating civil war in the 1990s.