Tunisia Opposition Urges President to Step in over Ghannouchi’s Stances on Libya

Parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouchi. (Reuters)
Parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouchi. (Reuters)
TT

Tunisia Opposition Urges President to Step in over Ghannouchi’s Stances on Libya

Parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouchi. (Reuters)
Parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouchi. (Reuters)

Seven Tunisian opposition parties called on President Kais Saied to respond to recent remarks by parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouci, in wake of accusations against Tunis that it was providing “logistic support to Turkey in its aggression against Libya.”

In a joint statement, they denounced a phone call between Ghannouchi and head of the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) Fayez al-Sarraj during which they discussed the developments in Libya. They said that the fact that parliament did not disclose the details of the talks only raises more questions and criticism.

The political parties: the Workers’ Party, the Tunisia Forward Movement, the Socialist Party, the National Democratic Socialist Party, Al Qotb and the Baath movement described Ghannouchi’s move as an attempt to “bypass state institutions and drag the country into the Libyan conflict, in support of the Muslim Brotherhood and their allies.”

The statement regretted the role Ghannouchi has played on behalf of the country’s parliament, accusing him of “behaving like a member of the international organization of the Muslim Brotherhood, through prioritizing the interests of Islamists at the expense of those of Tunisia and its people.”

Ghannouchi is head of the moderate Islamist Ennahda party.

They called on Saied to intervene in his capacity as president to tackle foreign policy and pursue relations that serve Tunisia’s national security.



WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
TT

WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)

The World Health Organization is sending more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children being infected after the virus was detected in sewage samples, its chief said on Friday.

"While no cases of polio have been recorded yet, without immediate action, it is just a matter of time before it reaches the thousands of children who have been left unprotected," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an opinion piece in Britain's The Guardian newspaper.

He wrote that children under five were most at risk from the viral disease, and especially infants under two since normal vaccination campaigns have been disrupted by more than nine months of conflict.

Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the fecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. Cases of polio have declined by 99% worldwide since 1988 thanks to mass vaccination campaigns and efforts continue to eradicate it completely.

Israel's military said on Sunday it would start offering the polio vaccine to soldiers serving in the Gaza Strip after remnants of the virus were found in test samples in the enclave.

Besides polio, the UN reported last week a widespread increase in cases of Hepatitis A, dysentery and gastroenteritis as sanitary conditions deteriorate in Gaza, with sewage spilling into the streets near some camps for displaced people.