Gaid Salah calls for national dialogue to protect Algeria

Ahmed Gaid Salah, the Chief of Staff of the Algerian People’s National Army and Deputy Defence Minister Lieutenant-General, has yielded to protestors demand to delay the presidential elections.

Protestors recently accused Salah of treason and conspiracy. However, Salah has called for “holding a serious and constructive dialogue to resolve the crisis in the country.”

“The only way to solve the crisis in our country lies in the adoption of a purposeful, serious, realistic, constructive, and visionary dialogue approach that puts Algeria above all considerations,” Gaid Salah said in a statement published by the Algerian press.

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“Dialogue means that everyone is prepared to listen carefully and patiently to everyone else. Dialogue also means the participation of elites and personalities,” Gaid Salah added.

“We are ready to listen, patiently and calmly,” he continued.

Salah said “the urgent need to find the necessary solutions because the people do not want to repeat the bitter past experiences of the nineties.”

Gaid Salah’s remarks reflected his abandonment of the language he used for only one week, as he refused to respond to calls for dialogue or the transitional phases presented by the political parties and the Algerian public bodies, stressing that the July elections are the only way out of the crisis.