Abdelilah Benkirane

Several high-level diplomatic meetings initiated by Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane in recent weeks have raised hopes that Algeria and Morocco might finally reopen their border closed since 1994...

Yet the prominence of MB associates in the governments of Morocco’s Abdelillah Benkirane and Tunisia’s Hamadi Jebali may tempt them into a leadership role (AC Vol 52 No 25 Brothers unbound)...

Under Abdelilah Benkirane who is now Prime Minister the party won control of key ministries including Foreign Affairs Justice and Communications...

Bouguerra Soltani the leader of the smallest party in the ruling Presidential Alliance the Mouvement de la société pour la paix (MSP) has been 'galvanised' by the Muslim Brotherhood's breakthrough elsewhere meeting Tunisian Ennahda's Rachid Ghannouchi when he visited Algiers in November and celebrating the victory of Abdelillah Benkirane's Parti de la justice et du développement (PJD) in Morocco...

King Mohammed VI invited its leader Abdelillah Benkirane to form a government...

The PJD breakthrough showed the extent of Islamist urban support; Sheikh Abdessalam Yacine and his harder-line Al Adl wal Ihsane (Justice and Charity) are more entrenched and popular than the PJD and its Abdelillah Benkirane and Mustapha Ramid...

The PJD breakthrough showed the extent of Islamist support in towns where Sheikh Abdessalam Yacine's harder-line Al Adl wal Ihsane (Justice and Charity) is more entrenched and popular than the PJD's Abdelillah Benkirane and Mustapha Ramid...

It may also make space for more accommodating Islamist parties such as the Mouvement Populaire Constitutionnel et Démocratique (MPCD) a moribund nationalist party until 1996 when (apparently with Basri's approval) it was infiltrated by members of Abdelilah Benkirane's Attajdid wal Islah (Renewal and Reform) movement and subsequently won nine seats in parliament...

The MPCD still formally led by a veteran of the Arab-Islamist wing of the nationalist movement Abdelkrim Khatib was infiltrated by members of Abdelilah Benkirane's Attajdid wal Islah (Renewal and Reform) movement in 1996 in a move apparently sanctioned by Basri which revived the moribund party...

The move by members of Abdelilah Benkirane's AttajdidwalIslah (Renewal and Reform) movement into the MPDC last year has revived the small inactive party still formally led by Abdelkrim Khatib which was rewarded with nine seats from 142 candidates...