Tunisian Opposition Parties Avoid Alliance with Ennahda

 Tunisia’s president Kais Saied takes the oath of office at the Assembly of People’s Representatives in Tunis, Tunisia October 23, 2019 (REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi)
Tunisia’s president Kais Saied takes the oath of office at the Assembly of People’s Representatives in Tunis, Tunisia October 23, 2019 (REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi)
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Tunisian Opposition Parties Avoid Alliance with Ennahda

 Tunisia’s president Kais Saied takes the oath of office at the Assembly of People’s Representatives in Tunis, Tunisia October 23, 2019 (REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi)
Tunisia’s president Kais Saied takes the oath of office at the Assembly of People’s Representatives in Tunis, Tunisia October 23, 2019 (REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi)

The Tunisian opposition - consisting mainly of a group of leftist parties, the Free Constitutional Party and the National Salvation Front, in addition to the Tunisian General Labor Union - continues to engage in a sharp confrontation with President Kais Saied’s political path, but without uniting on one front, or in a specific bloc.

Each of these parties – with different political and electoral considerations – have expressed serious concerns about supporting the moves of the National Salvation Front, which is backed by the leaders of the Ennahda movement.

In this context, Hisham Al-Ajbouni, a leader in the opposition Democratic Current Party, renewed his rejection of the July 25, 2021 path, and rejected rapprochement with the Front, despite the two parties’ engagement against the existing authority.

Al-Ajbouni cited several reasons for his party’s decision, including “the need for [Ennahda Movement] to recognize the grave mistakes it committed during the ten years in which it led the Tunisian political scene.”

He added that the movement should “remove the symbols of political failure,” whom he held responsible for the exceptional measures taken by the president at that time.

A large number of opposition parties “cannot forget the miserable failure in managing public affairs, and the many disagreements they witnessed during the rule of Ennahda movement,” according to the Tunisian politician.

Asked about the difficulties facing the coordination between the political and social parties opposing the president’s path, Jamal Larafaoui, a Tunisian political analyst, told Asharq Al-Awsat: “There are several disagreements that divide the ranks of the Tunisian opposition, most of them are ideological.”

He explained: “The leftist parties are not reassured by presence of the deputies of political Islam, and refuse any participation with them,” adding: “Similarly, the Free Constitutional Party, which is led by Abeer Moussa, opposes the existing authority, but at the same time calls for the removal of representatives of political Islam, led by Ennahda Movement, for they “threaten the democratic path and the civil state.”



Evidence of Ongoing 'Crimes Against Humanity' in Darfur, Says ICC Deputy Prosecutor

A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
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Evidence of Ongoing 'Crimes Against Humanity' in Darfur, Says ICC Deputy Prosecutor

A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo

There are "reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity" are being committed in war-ravaged Sudan's western Darfur region, the deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said.

Outlining her office's probe of the devastating conflict which has raged since 2023, Nazhat Shameem Khan told the UN Security Council that it was "difficult to find appropriate words to describe the depth of suffering in Darfur," AFP reported.

"On the basis of our independent investigations, the position of our office is clear. We have reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity, have been and are continuing to be committed in Darfur," she said.

The prosecutor's office focused its probe on crimes committed in West Darfur, Khan said, interviewing victims who fled to neighboring Chad.

She detailed an "intolerable" humanitarian situation, with apparent targeting of hospitals and humanitarian convoys, while warning that "famine is escalating" as aid is unable to reach "those in dire need."

"People are being deprived of water and food. Rape and sexual violence are being weaponized," Khan said, adding that abductions for ransom had become "common practice."

"And yet we should not be under any illusion, things can still get worse."

The Security Council referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC in 2005, with some 300,000 people killed during conflict in the region in the 2000s.

In 2023, the ICC opened a fresh probe into war crimes in Darfur after a new conflict erupted between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The RSF's predecessor, the Janjaweed militia, was accused of genocide two decades ago in the vast western region.

ICC judges are expected to deliver their first decision on crimes committed in Darfur two decades ago in the case of Ali Mohamed Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, known as Ali Kosheib, after the trial ended in 2024.

"I wish to be clear to those on the ground in Darfur now, to those who are inflicting unimaginable atrocities on its population -- they may feel a sense of impunity at this moment, as Ali Kosheib may have felt in the past," said Khan.

"But we are working intensively to ensure that the Ali Kosheib trial represents only the first of many in relation to this situation at the International Criminal Court," she added.