Tunisia President Kais Saied extends state of emergency until end of year

Tunisian President, Kais Saied, has extended a long-running state of emergency by 11 months until 31 December, 2024, the official gazette showed on Tuesday, local Tunisian media reports.

According to the report, the North African country has been under a state of emergency since 2015 after an attack in which several presidential guards were killed.

President Joe Biden, on Thursday, issued an executive order that targets Israeli settlers in the West Bank who have been attacking Palestinians in the Occupied Territory, imposing financial sanctions and visa bans in an initial round against four individuals.

Those settlers were involved in acts of violence, as well as threats and attempts to destroy or seize Palestinian property, according to the order.

The penalties aim to block the four from using the US financial system and bar American citizens from dealing with them. US officials said they were evaluating whether to punish others involved in attacks that have intensified during the Israel-Hamas war.

Saied has held nearly total power since 25 July 2021 when he sacked the prime minister, suspended parliament and assumed executive authority citing a national emergency.

The majority of the country’s political parties slammed the move as a “coup against the constitution” and the achievements of the 2011 revolution. Critics say Saied’s decisions have strengthened the powers of the presidency at the expense of parliament and the government, and that he aims to transform the country’s government into a presidential system.

On more than one occasion, Saied, who began a five-year presidential term in 2019, said that his exceptional decisions are not a coup, but rather measures within the framework of the constitution to protect the state from “imminent danger”.

Read: Tunisia bans lawyer representing Palestine at the ICJ