Jafar Qanadbashi, in an interview with the website of the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, said: After such measures, Tunisian President Kais Saied ousted more than 30 Tunisian political officials. Such a measure was referred to by many analysts as a coup or quasi-coup and was considered as a cessation of democracy in Tunisia.

Saying that now with the passage of almost two weeks since the move, Tunisian President Kais Saied has a clearer picture of his motives as well as his measures, Qanadbashi stressed: In particular, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have shown their role in those developments by openly supporting the Tunisian President and sending their foreign ministers to that country.

According to the expert, it is natural that many Tunisians, especially the educated and academic strata, as well as a number of political officials, are pessimistic about Kais Saied’s decisions and seek to find an opportunity to prevent the harmful interventions of Saudi Arabia and the UAE in Tunisia.

Noting that Western news agencies as well as those belonging to the Arab reactionaries in the region refrain from covering such inflammations, he said: In contrast, they highlight the movements of a number of supporters of small parties in alignment with Kais Saied; but, the developments in Tunisia are not in a way that those news agencies can conceal.

Commenting on the impact of the outbreak of the Coronavirus on the current situation in Tunisia, Qanadbashi said: The current developments in Tunisia, by taking a closer look at the country’s affairs, can be seen as an opportunity that Coronavirus has created in that country and has provided the Arab reaction with the opportunity to persuade the Tunisian president to close the parliament and oust the prime minister of that country.

He continued: The Coronavirus has a different face in Tunisia than other countries; as in addition to the problems and difficulties caused by the treatment of patients, the process of implementation of vaccination, and the closure of some businesses has affected the tourist income, the only very effective income of that country, and has reduced it by more than 70%. It should be noted that Tunisia has relied on revenues from the tourism industry in recent decades, and with the global outbreak of the Coronavirus and the significant decline in tourism in the world, the revenues from tourism in Tunisia have also decreased significantly.

According to Qanadbashi, this is tantamount to adding a huge problem to the economic problems left over from the time of Ben Ali, as well as providing favorable conditions for Western policies and Arab reaction to defeat democracy in that country.

The expert of Africa affairs believes that beyond the coup d’état of the Tunisian president, as well as the support of the UAE and Saudi Arabia, the policy of removing Tunisian Islamists from power is being considered. In particular, the Islamists, including the Ennahda party, have mainly Brotherhood tendencies and in this respect are among the targets of the destructive policies of the Western world and the Arab reaction.

He added: In other words, this policy means paving the way for the rule of the secular current in Tunisia, which is currently not only in the minority but also does not have the necessary popular support to seize power.

Pointing out that this is the same policy that was somehow implemented in Sudan about two years ago, Qanadbashi said: This policy prepared the grounds for removing the Brotherhood and Islamic tendencies from the country’s political scene.

With regard to Libya, the expert explained: This policy has taken on a different face in Libya and has been implemented in support of General Haftar’s armed and belligerent actions against Libyan Islamists.

He continued: In other dimension of this policy, there is an attempt to oppose Turkey’s political, military and economic plans in North Africa; as due to its Brotherhood ties, Ankara has consistently supported Islamist movements close to the Muslim Brotherhood, and in this regard has faced reactions from Arab reactionaries and the Western world.

The expert on Africa affairs, on the trend of developments in Tunisia said: In any case, Tunisia is witnessing inflammations that have not only originated from the internal affairs of that country, but also have arisen from the reactionary-Brotherhood rivalries (Saudi Arabia and the UAE against Qatar and Turkey) that have already taken place in various ways in Sudan and Libya, and more importantly, in the form of a coup d’état by the Egyptian military 10 years ago against the Brotherhood’s semi-democracy in that country. An important point in this regard is the Western support for the rule of the secular current in Tunisia, which is implemented in the form of the concessions from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in that country.