Former Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki accused the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia of being “part of an octopus that works to bring the old regime back to power, i.e. supporters of former Tunisian President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali’s regime.” Such accusation has been previously denied by both countries. Saudi Arabia has received Ben Ali since he fled in 2011, following a popular uprising that overthrew him.
Marzouki said that the allegations against Ennahda movement of holding a secret security apparatus are mere stories that were “invented by a foreign operations chamber to liquidate Ennahda and political Islam in the country.” During an interview with Diwan FM, a local Tunisian radio station, on Sunday, he claimed that the affair of the secret apparatus involving Ennahda, the Islamic party that holds 68 out of 214 seats in parliament, is nonsensical and baseless.”
He added that “a foreign party that wants to get rid of Ennahda as well as political Islam, has fabricated the story of the secret apparatus after the revolution, in order to intimidate and overthrow the Islamic movement in the next elections,” which are scheduled for the end of this year, without specifying the source of his information.
Marzouki to Tunisian Ennahda: join with us ‘to destroy the monster’
Marzouki stressed that “the evidence presented by the Committee for the Defense of opposition lawyers Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahimi, on the existence of a secret apparatus working for Ennahda, are fabricated,” and added: “This is exactly what I have already discussed. There is a monster that started devouring Ennahda movement” in reference to a system which operates following the instructions of corrupt businessmen, in addition to international forces that aim to exert pressure on Ennahda and force it to make concessions, then eradicate it.
At the end of last year, the Committee for the Defense of opposition lawyers Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahimi, who was assassinated in 2013, claimed that Ennahda movement had “a secret military apparatus involved in assassinations and liquidation of its political adversaries.” In effect, such a story has been strongly denied by the movement.
Marzouki criticised the leftist movement in Tunisia, saying that members of the Tunisian left “resent Islamists.” During a conference in the city of Sfax, south of Tunisia, on Sunday, Marzouki called Ennahda movement to end its coalition with Nidaa Tounes and engage in a consensus with Al-Irada party in preparation for the coming elections. As such, Marzouki advised Ennahda movement to work hand in hand with Al-Irada party in order to stop the “monster” and eat it instead.
In November, Ennahda party had expressed, in a statement, its “surprised by what has been published on the official Facebook page of the Tunisian presidency, including the attacks against the movement regarding the secret apparatus affair,” and described such allegations as false. The aforementioned comments made by the Tunisian presidency came after President Beji Caid Essebsi’s meeting with a delegation from the Committee for the Defense of opposition lawyers Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahimi.