TUNIS: Tunisian police clashed with protesters near the chamber of the suspended parliament on Sunday as demonstrators marched against President Kais Saied’s seizure of political power four months ago.
Hundreds of police had blocked off the area where thousands of protesters were gathering to demand that Saied restore parliament and normal democratic rule.
Increasingly vocal opposition, along with a looming crisis in public finances, may pose a new test of how Saied and the new government he has appointed will tackle threats to their authority.
“Shut down Kais Saied” and “Freedom! Freedom! End the police state!” protesters chanted as they pulled down barriers obstructing the roads leading to the parliament building at the capital’s Bardo palace, leading to clashes.
“We are under one-man rule since July 25... we will stay here until they open the roads and end the siege,” said Jawher Ben Mbarek, a protest leader.
Saied seized nearly all powers in July, suspending the parliament and dismissing the government in a move his critics called a coup, before installing a new prime minister and announcing he could rule by decree.
The president said his actions were needed to end governmental paralysis after years of political squabbling and economic stagnation, and has promised to uphold rights and freedoms won in the 2011 revolution that brought democracy.
His moves appeared to have widespread popularity and thousands of his supporters gathered for a rally to back him last month.
However, several prominent politicians have been arrested and hundreds have faced travel bans, while a former president living outside Tunisia, Moncef Marzouki, faces prosecution for his verbal attacks on Saied.
Sunday’s protest followed clashes last week between police and protesters in the southern town of Agareb in which one person was killed.
“Tunisia is isolated internationally now with the closing of parliament and the coup... we want to restore democracy,” said Abderrouf Betbaib, a former Saied adviser who was at the front of the protest.
Tunisian protesters try to march on suspended parliament
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Tunisian protesters try to march on suspended parliament
Trump asks Netanyahu to change West Bank policy
- US President, his team raise settler violence, financial instability of PA, Israeli settlements’ expansion
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump and his top advisers asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to change Israel’s policies in the occupied West Bank during their meeting according to a US official and another source, both with direct knowledge, Axios said.
Home to 2.7 million Palestinians, the West Bank has long been at the heart of plans for a future Palestinian state alongside Israel.
According to the US official, the White House thinks a violent escalation in the West Bank would undermine efforts to implement the Gaza peace agreement and prevent the expansion of the Abraham Accords before the end of Trump’s term.
Trump and his team expressed concern about the situation in the West Bank and asked Netanyahu to avoid provocative steps and “calm things down,” the sources said.
The president and his team raised settler violence against Palestinian civilians, the financial instability of the Palestinian Authority, and Israeli settlements expansion, the sources said.
The US message was that changing course in the West Bank is critical to repair Israel’s relations with European countries and, hopefully, expand the Abraham Accords. “Netanyahu spoke very strongly against settler violence and said he is going to take more action,” the source with knowledge said.
