Tag: National

At conference held in Turkish capital, Khemaies Jhinaoui discusses the many challenges now facing the Middle East Tunisian Foreign Minister Khemaies Jhinaoui delivered a speech at a Friday conference in Ankara devoted to the role of Tunisian diplomacy in facilitating democratic transition, challenges currently facing the region and Tunisia-Turkey relations. Held at the Tunisian embassy, the event was organized by Turkey’s Public Administration Institute for Turkey and the Middle East. “Tunisia is trying to establish a political paradigm based on mutual understanding, which is rewarding for both the religious and…

Protestors in Tunisia’s southern Tataouine province ended their six-week-long sit-in on Friday in return for government promises to address some of their grievances. Following a day of negotiations, agreement was reached between Tunisian officials and the father of a young Tunisian man killed in recent clashes between protestors and security forces in Tataouine’s restive Al-Kamour district. In the agreement, government officials vowed to resume oil production in the region and provide local youth with more job opportunities in the oil-production sector. For the last several months, the southern Tataouine province…

Protesters agreed Friday to end a blockade of a Tunisian oil and gas plant that saw bloody clashes with police last month after the government met many of their demands. The mainly young unemployed protesters had held a three-month sit-in at the El-Kamour pumping station demanding jobs and investment in the impoverished southern Tataouine region. Amid growing fears the social unrest could spread, Employment Minister Imed Hammami signed a deal with representatives of the protesters brokered by Tunisia’s powerful trade union confederation. “This agreement satisfies everyone… and will be very…

For the first time, Tunisia has prolonged the countrywide state of emergency, which has been in place for more than a year and a half the president’s office announced yesterday. “Following consultations with Prime Minister Yusuf Al-Shahid and the Parliament Speaker Mohamed Al-Nasser, President Beji Caid Essebsi has decided on Wednesday to extend the state of emergency for four additional months, effective as of Thursday, 15 June” according to a statement issued by the president’s office. The state of emergency grants emergency powers to the police, and also allows for…

Libyan authorities deported on Monday 24 Tunisian nationals after being arrested while trying to sail to Italy from the country’s western shores. The Tunisian Embassy in Tripoli said its 24 nationals had entered Libya from Ras Ajdir border crossing in a legal way, but they were arrested on May 10 before making their illegal journey to Italy. The illegal Tunisian immigrants were flown back to their country through Tripoli-based Mitiga Airport. The Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights said in a recent report that 820 Tunisians had reached the…

Rights group Amnesty International on Tuesday dismissed as “absurd” the jailing in Tunisia of people who fail to observe the Ramadan fast. There is no law against eating or drinking in public during Ramadan, but every year the issue comes to the fore in the North African country. On Monday, a court sentenced to one month in prison a man who smoked a cigarette in public during the dawn-to-dusk fast. He was seen smoking outside the Bizerte courthouse by a judiciary official who informed the police and they arrested him.…

A Tunisian court Monday sentenced to one month in prison a man who smoked a cigarette in public during the Muslim dawn-to-dusk holy fasting month of Ramadan, a spokesman said. The man was seen smoking outside the Bizerte courthouse by a judiciary official who informed the police before they arrested him and referred him to the prosecution, the spokesman Chokri Lahmar told AFP. He said the man had 10 days to appeal before the sentence takes effect. On June 1 four men were sentenced to one-month jail terms for eating…

The Tunisian authorities have given all charity organizations in the country a month to submit a statement on the foreign donations and grants that they receive. The Tunisian government of Prime Minister Yousef Chahed is seeking through this measure to crack down on the suspicious activities of several of these groups. It will also resort to the central bank and finance ministry to inspect the financial accounts of the organizations. The Interior Ministry has meanwhile been tasked with monitoring any suspicious acts, especially in regards to funding terrorism. The organizations…