HIBAPRESS
Algerian diplomat Ahmed Taleb Ibrahimi, who served as Foreign Minister between 1982 and 1988, has died at the age of 93, according to state television on Sunday.
Ibrahimi was one of the prominent national figures, as he ran for the presidency of Algeria in 1999, but withdrew with the rest of the candidates in protest against what they described as fraud, leaving Abdelaziz Bouteflika the only candidate, who ruled the country for twenty years before resigning in 2019 under pressure from the popular movement. Ibrahimi was known for his support for the movement for democracy, and his call to the army to dialogue with the demonstrators, so much so that his pictures were raised in some cities as the leader of the transitional phase towards democracy. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune mourned him, saying: "The late Dr. Ahmed Taleb Ibrahimi has died, the descendant of a house of knowledge and piety. With his departure, Algeria loses a name mentioned with favor and the status of national figures." Ibrahimi was born on January 5, 1932, in the village of Ouled Brahim, east of Algeria, in a conservative family, and he is the son of Sheikh El-Bachir El-Ibrahimi, one of the founders of the Association of Algerian Scholars. Ahmed Taleb Ibrahimi studied in Tlemcen and then at the Faculty of Medicine in Algiers, before continuing his studies in Paris where he joined the Union of Algerian Muslim Students and was active in the ranks of the fighters for independence, which led to his arrest by the French authorities between 1957 and 1961. After independence, he held several ministerial positions, including Minister of Education (1965-1970) and Minister of Information (1970-1977), before becoming Foreign Minister under President Chadli Bendjedid.
