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Tunisia Probes Corruption Allegations against Ministers, MPs

Tunisian President Saied meets with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Tuesday. (Tunisian Presidency)
Tunisian President Saied meets with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Tuesday. (Tunisian Presidency)
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Tunisia Probes Corruption Allegations against Ministers, MPs

Tunisian President Saied meets with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Tuesday. (Tunisian Presidency)
Tunisian President Saied meets with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Tuesday. (Tunisian Presidency)

A former Tunisian prime minister, ministers, MPs and senior economic officials are facing charges of financial and administrative corruption after a non-governmental organization opened investigations against them.

Among them are former Finance Minister Nizar Yaish and current Central Bank Marouane El Abassi, who are both candidates to the position of prime minister. Reports have said that they have declined the appointment.

The Raqabah anti-corruption monitor, which monitors corruption cases in the country, accused sacked Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, El Abassi and Yaish, of financial and administrative fraud and illicit profits in financial issues related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The head of the monitor, Imed Daimi, former minister and advisor at the presidential palace in 2012 and 2013, said that the Competition Council (a government agency that follows up corruption cases) pledged to file an “urgent case against the governor of the Central Bank, the Minister of Finance and the former prime minister.”

Meanwhile, the presidency has intensified consultations with a number of countries and regional and international capitals, including Washington, Paris, Algeria, Cairo and Libya, to resolve the crisis in Tunisia.

President Kais Saied, who had met with the Algerian Foreign Minister twice and received phone calls from Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, received an Egyptian delegation headed by Sameh Shoukry, the Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs to discuss the situation in the country. The Tunisian presidency also received phone calls from French and American officials.

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Arab World

Israel Wipes Out 29 Lebanese Border Towns

This handout satellite picture provided by Planet Labs PBC and dated October 24, 2024 shows a view of the village of the southern Lebanese village of Mais al-Jabal on the border with Israel, amid the ongoing war between Hezbollah and Israel. (Photo by Planet Labs PBC / AFP)
This handout satellite picture provided by Planet Labs PBC and dated October 24, 2024 shows a view of the village of the southern Lebanese village of Mais al-Jabal on the border with Israel, amid the ongoing war between Hezbollah and Israel. (Photo by Planet Labs PBC / AFP)
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Israel Wipes Out 29 Lebanese Border Towns

This handout satellite picture provided by Planet Labs PBC and dated October 24, 2024 shows a view of the village of the southern Lebanese village of Mais al-Jabal on the border with Israel, amid the ongoing war between Hezbollah and Israel. (Photo by Planet Labs PBC / AFP)
This handout satellite picture provided by Planet Labs PBC and dated October 24, 2024 shows a view of the village of the southern Lebanese village of Mais al-Jabal on the border with Israel, amid the ongoing war between Hezbollah and Israel. (Photo by Planet Labs PBC / AFP)

Some 29 Lebanese border villages have been “completely destroyed” by Israel, revealed Mohamed Chamseddine, policy research specialist at Information International.

Vidoes have been circulating on social media of dozens of houses in a Lebanese border village being detonated simultaneously by the Israeli army. Israel has been adopting this scorched earth policy since October in an attempt to set up a buffer zone along the border.

In one video, soldiers can be heard chanting a countdown before the detonation of several houses followed by celebrations.

Chamseddine told Asharq Al-Awsat that Israel has destroyed 29 villages dotted across 120 kms from the Naqoura area in the west to Shebaa in the east.

The villages of Aita al-Shaab, Kfar Kila, Adeisseh, Houla, Dhayra, Marwahin, Mhaibib, and al-Khiam have been completely destroyed along with some 25,000 houses, he added.

Last month, the detonations in Adeisseh and Deir Seryan were so powerful that they caused tremors that were initially mistaken for earthquakes.

Experts are in agreement that Israel is completely wiping out villages and all signs of life, including trees, to turn the area into a buffer zone so that residents of northern Israel can return to their homes.

They also believe that the scorched earth policy means that residents of the South won’t be able to rebuild and replant what they lost once a ceasefire is reached and they can return home.

Brig. Gen. Hassan Jouni, former deputy chief of staff of operations in the Lebanese Armed Forces, said Israel wants to be create a 3 km-deep buffer zone along its border with Lebanon.

Israel is destroying everything in that area, leaving it exposed so that any possible threat there can be easily spotted, he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

However, he remarked that Israel is not keeping its forces deployed in the South, so it won’t be able to hold any territory and keep these areas destroyed. Any political agreement will inevitably call for the return of Lebanese residents back to their villages where they will rebuild their homes, he explained.

The Lebanese state will in no way agree for the border strip to remain uninhabited and destroyed, Jouni stressed.

“In all likelihood, Israel already knows this, and its actions are part of a psychological war to punish the residents of those villages and towns because they are Hezbollah’s popular support base. Israel wants to drive a wedge between the people and Hezbollah. It is as if it is saying: ‘See how the party was unable to protect your homes,’” he went on to say.

Moreover, Jouni said Israel is mistaken if it believes that a buffer zone will restore security to its northern settlements because those areas can be targeted from beyond the border region.

So, what is taking place on the ground is in effect Israel just going to the extreme in violating international law, he added. “Its claims that it is targeting weapons and ammunition caches do not fool anyone because from a military standpoint, these caches are not stored along the border, but deeper in a country.”