Defectors from Tunisia’s Ennahda Seek to Form New Party

President Kais Saied presides over the first government meeting headed by Najla Bouden. (AFP)
President Kais Saied presides over the first government meeting headed by Najla Bouden. (AFP)
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Defectors from Tunisia’s Ennahda Seek to Form New Party

President Kais Saied presides over the first government meeting headed by Najla Bouden. (AFP)
President Kais Saied presides over the first government meeting headed by Najla Bouden. (AFP)

Dozens of figures, who resigned from the Ennahda movement, are preparing to establish a new political party, said Tunisian political sources.

The new party is expected to meet some of Ennahda’s intellectual and ideological views. However, according to the sources, it will not adopt the same strategy in dealing with politics and social organizations.

The new party will be “a middle ground” for everyone who believes in the identity of the “Arab Islamic Tunisian people.”

Abdelfattah Mourou, a former leading member of Ennahda, will chair the new party. The leadership will also include Abdellatif Mekki, Mohamed Ben Salem, Samir Dilou, and several lawmakers of the suspended parliament.

Several officials resigned from the Ennahda movement, headed by parliament Speaker Rached al-Ghannouchi, in protest against the leadership’s actions and stances.

They slammed the party for its lack of internal reforms and warned that the wrong choices led to the leadership’s isolation and failure to engage in any common front to confront President Kais Saied’s recent extraordinary measures.

Earlier this year, Saied invoked emergency powers under Article 80 of the constitution to sack Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, freeze parliament, lift the immunity of parliament members and make himself prosecutor general.

Secretary-General of the Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT) said that “there will be no return to autocracy” in reference to the expected political reforms being arranged by the presidency.

Speaking to the press during the “African Continental Free Trade Agreement,” Noureddine Taboubi underscored the demands for the formation of a political system that is not based on single rule, rejecting attempts to establish an autocracy.

Taboubi acknowledged disagreements with the presidency, noting: “We want a balanced government based on oversight, accountability, constitutional institutions and the rule of law.”



Trump’s Nominee for Ambassador to Israel Avoids Direct Answers on West Bank Annexation

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, US President Donald Trump's nominee to be ambassador to Israel, testifies during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on March 25, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images/AFP)
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, US President Donald Trump's nominee to be ambassador to Israel, testifies during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on March 25, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Trump’s Nominee for Ambassador to Israel Avoids Direct Answers on West Bank Annexation

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, US President Donald Trump's nominee to be ambassador to Israel, testifies during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on March 25, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images/AFP)
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, US President Donald Trump's nominee to be ambassador to Israel, testifies during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on March 25, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images/AFP)

Mike Huckabee, facing a US Senate hearing for his confirmation as President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Israel, is facing close questioning from Democrats on his views on the potential for Israeli annexation of the West Bank, but he avoided giving direct answers.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, asked Huckabee whether he thought it would be wrong for a Jewish settler to push a Palestinian family off land they own in the West Bank.

Huckabee, a well-known evangelical Christian, stood by past statements that Israel has a “Biblical mandate” to the land. He also responded by saying he believed in the “law being followed” and “clarity,” but also that “purchasing the land” would be a “legitimate transaction.”

Huckabee also said that any Palestinians living in an annexed West Bank would have “security” and “opportunity,” but wouldn’t answer Van Hollen’s questions about whether they would have the same legal and political rights as Jewish people.

Four pro-Palestinian demonstrators interrupted the hearing in the Senate to decry Huckabee’s ardent support for Israel.

One blew a shofar, a ram’s horn used for Jewish religious purposes, and another shouted, “I am a proud American Jew!” then “Let Palestinians live!”

Police quickly grabbed the protesters, but their shouts could still be momentarily heard in the Senate hallway.

Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas and one-time Republican presidential hopeful, has taken stances on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that sharply contradict longstanding US policy in the region.

He has spoken favorably in the past about Israel’s right to annex the occupied West Bank and has long been opposed to the idea of a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinian people.

In an interview last year, he went even further, saying that he doesn’t even believe in referring to the Arab descendants of people who lived in British-controlled Palestine as “Palestinians.”