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Caid Essebsi Decries Hold of Ennahda on Government, Says Could Run Again

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Caid Essebsi Decries Hold of Ennahda on Government, Says Could Run Again UK £2 Issue 191, Year 4 February 3, 2019 EU €2.50 www.thearabweekly.com Lebanon Sudan’s Venezuela finally forms continued and the a government unrest Middle EastPages 5-6, 21 Page 14 Page 12 Page 13 Caid Essebsi decries hold of Ennahda on government, says could run again ► Tunisian president hopes next Arab summit will ‘unify ranks,’ sees readmission of Syria depending on consensus. Haitham El-Zobaidi Tunis he private office of Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi at the Carthage Palace in T the northern suburbs of Tu- nis is elegantly decorated and taste- fully furnished. Next to the door and facing the president’s desk, a wooden cabi- net serves as a pedestal for a bust of the late Tunisian President Ha- bib Bourguiba under whom Caid Essebsi had served in the 1980s as minister of foreign affairs. The stat- ue reminds visitors that the current Tunisian president is proud to be the trustworthy custodian of Bour- guiba’s legacy. Caid Essebsi’s commitment to that legacy is perhaps more perti- nent today than at any other pe- riod of Tunisia’s modern history because the country needs inspira- tion from the vision and leadership of its founding father to ensure the success of its democratic transition and consolidate its progressive and open model of society. As we sat down to talk for an exclusive interview he granted to The Arab Weekly and Al Arab, the 92-year-old president shifted his focus with ease between domestic Not mincing words. Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi talks during interview with Al Arab and The Arab Weekly. (Tunisian Presidency) politics and regional and interna- tional issues. bours to help resolve the crisis [Chahed’s] ambition and dealt with modernist mantle, the announce- jection of the notion of “presidents In his answers, he wanted to be in the oil-rich Maghreb country, him intelligently. It pushed him ment of the new party was made in for life,” Caid Essebsi kept his op- reassuring that all Tunisians are wishes “for the return of the state to form a new party that would be Bourguiba’s birthplace of Monastir. tions open regarding this year’s welcoming of the Arab summit, set in Libya,” although the search for its partner in power after the 2019 Regarding allegations linking elections. He said he would consid- for March in Tunis. He said he was a solution there will have to be “a elections. Rached Ghannouchi will the Islamist party to a clandestine er running for a second term only if confident the summit would “take Libyan-Libyan affair, without any secretly back Chahed’s candidacy organisation allegedly involved in the “interest of Tunisia” dictated it. place in the best of circumstances” external interference,” Caid Essebsi for the office of President of the illicit and violent activities, includ- Between now and elections near and expressed the hope the meet- said. Republic. This is no longer a secret ing the assassination of two leftist the end of the year, tensions are ing would help “unify Arab ranks.” He was frank in addressing is- for anyone in Tunisia,” Caid Essebsi leaders, Caid Essebsi insisted on bound to run high in Tunisia. In Regarding the readmission of sues related to Tunisia’s shifting said. the need to “ascertain whether En- many regards, the electoral season Syria in the Arab fold, Caid Essebsi political alliances less than a year The head of government’s nahda has a secret arm or not.” has already begun. As shown by said Tunisia would “stand with the before legislative and presidential spokesman, Iyad Dahmani, denied “A country like Tunisia that wants Caid Essebsi’s remarks in this inter- Arab consensus” and “adopt the elections. He described the govern- the existence of such an arrange- its revolution to be fair must verify view, the president does not seem resolutions endorsed by the Arab ment of his previous ally-turned-ri- ment. Referring to the previous if such an apparatus exists or not… to be shying away from playing League.” val Prime Minister Youssef Chahed “entente accord” struck between We do not accuse without proof,” hardball. However, the Tunisian president as “Ennahda’s government,” decry- Caid Essebsi and Ghannouchi Paris he said. bemoaned the lack of an “Arab ing its dependence on the support in 2013, he said: “That scenario will Ennahda has denied the accusa- Dr Haitham El-Zobaidi is an Iraqi project” amid regional and global of the Islamist party. “If Ennahda not repeat itself because Chahed tions. writer based in London. attempts at shaping events in the withdrew its support, the govern- does not strike deals in secrecy”. The veteran Tunisian leader ac- He is the Executive Editor region. ment would fall,” he said. Chahed recently established a knowledged, however, that Ennah- of Al Arab Publishing Group. He called Tunisia’s relationship Caid Essebsi said he saw a cov- new political party, Tahiya Tounes, da has tried to morph into a “nor- with next door Libya “vital.” He ert deal between Chahed and En- with the support of other former mal political party” but deemed its Expanded interview, said Tunisia, which has spared no nahda President Rached Ghan- Nidaa Tounes members. Compet- efforts “not sufficient.” effort along with other Arab neigh- nouchi. “Ennahda understood his ing with Caid Essebsi for Tunisia’s Although he expressed total re- reactions: Pages 2-3 After 4-year study, US military concludes Iran was ‘only victor’ in Iraq war Thomas Frank ests. With Iraq no longer a threat, President George W. Bush, who or- into neighbouring countries, “the 2005 “would have a ‘calming ef- Iran’s destabilising influence has dered the invasion, and other top Iraqi-Syrian border was effectively fect’ but those elections instead quickly spread to Yemen, Bahrain officials, including former US Sec- erased” and Syria “plunged into a exacerbated ethnic and sectarian Washington and Syria, as well as other loca- retary of State Condoleezza Rice, vicious civil war that devolved into tensions.” tions.” defence secretaries and military a brutality only seen in the worst “Frankly, more went wrong study by US military lead- The conclusions had to some ex- advisers. conflicts of the 20th century,” the than went right,” retired US Army ers concluded that Iran tent been acknowledged previous- report states. Colonel Frank Sobchak, one of was “the only victor” in ly, particularly under US President The threat of a regional conflict the study’s co-editors, told Na- the US-led invasion and Donald Trump, who has been pub- Written over four years, the between Sunni and Shia Muslims tional Public Radio. “Now, with A study relied on 30,000 pages occupation of Iraq and that the US licly critical of the invasion in 2003 with “potentially globally destabi- Iraq severely weakened and with effort to establish democracy and and US military presence through of classified documents and lising effects is now greater than at elements of its political class as stability in the Middle East was 2011. interviews with President any time since the original schism” supporters of Iran, Iran is clearly largely a failure. However, the document carries George W. Bush and other in 632. in a much stronger situation just “An emboldened and expan- unprecedented authority because top US officials. Among failures identified in the strategically and I think we see that sionist Iran appears to be the only of its 1,500-page length and its au- study was an inability to stop Iran playing out through its expansion- victor,” the two-volume study thorship by the US Army War Col- The report criticised almost all and Syria from giving “sanctuary ism and kind of adventurism oc- concluded. “Iraq, the traditional lege, a research centre for the US aspects of the US military and dip- and support” to militants, who curring in Syria, Yemen and other regional counterbalance for Iran, Army. lomatic campaign and traces much waged attacks across Iraq that locations.” is at best emasculated and at worst Written over four years, the study of the current instability in the destabilised the country. US com- has key elements of its government relied on 30,000 pages of classified Middle East to their failures. manders mistakenly believed that Thomas Frank is an Arab Weekly acting as proxies for Iranian inter- documents and interviews with As fighting spilled from Iraq Iraq’s parliamentary elections in correspondent in Washington. 2 February 3, 2019 Cover Story Caid Essebsi calls for thorough investigation of allegations of Islamist ‘secret apparatus’ ► Caid Essebsi says Arab summit will ‘take place in the best of circumstances.’ Haitham El-Zobaidi Tunis s we sat down and started fielding questions, it was obvious Tunisian Presi- A dent Beji Caid Essebsi was in a combative mood and would not mince his words. He was, however, patient with our line of question- ing and provided Al Arab and The Arab Weekly with his frank assess- ment of the situation at home and abroad. The Arab League Summit Tunisia will host the Arab League Summit in March. Caid Essebsi can- didly admitted that, as much as the summit should be a meeting of Arab reconciliation, it is also the crown- ing effort of Tunisia to reconcile with many Arab countries. The question of Syria is expected to be at the centre of discussions of the meetings. Caid Essebsi said the summit, which could help “unify Arab ranks,” will “take place in the best of circumstances.” “We do not harbour negative feel- ings towards Syria or anyone else. We stand with the Arab consensus and we will adopt the resolutions endorsed by the Arab League,” he added.
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