Tunisia Plans to Join BRICS Nations

Tunisian President Kais Saied (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Tunisian President Kais Saied (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Tunisia Plans to Join BRICS Nations

Tunisian President Kais Saied (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Tunisian President Kais Saied (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Tunisia said on Saturday that it intends to join the BRICS countries bloc of emerging economies that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

Mahmoud bin Mabrouk, spokesman for the pro-presidential July 25 Movement in Tunisia and pro-Tunisian President Kais Saeid, said his country plans to join the BRICS nations bloc.

“We will accept no dictates or interference in Tunisia’s internal affairs. We are negotiating the terms, but we refuse to receive instructions and the EU’s agenda,” said bin Mabrouk in remarks to the Arab News Agency.

Tunisian President Kais Saied had earlier expressed rejection of what he described as “dictates” of the International Monetary Fund to grant Tunisia $1.9 billion in loans.

Mabrouk described the BRICS nations as “a political, economic and financial alternative that will enable Tunisia to open up to the new world.”

He stressed that Tunisia's accession to the group would give it major economic gains, which would positively affect the social conditions in the country.

In 2018, Tunisia signed an agreement to join the "Belt and Road" initiative, which was established by China in 2013.

Bin Mabrouk went on to say: "After Algeria announced that it will join the group, we will also announce our intention to join BRICS."

Alegria had earlier announced plans to join the BRICS group next year.



Israel Strikes a Charity Kitchen and a Tent in Gaza, Killing at Least 9

 Palestinians walk next to a tent camp for displaced by the Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip in west of Gaza Strip, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians walk next to a tent camp for displaced by the Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip in west of Gaza Strip, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP)
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Israel Strikes a Charity Kitchen and a Tent in Gaza, Killing at Least 9

 Palestinians walk next to a tent camp for displaced by the Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip in west of Gaza Strip, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians walk next to a tent camp for displaced by the Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip in west of Gaza Strip, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP)

At least nine Palestinians were killed Wednesday in two separate Israeli airstrikes in central Gaza, medics said.

One strike hit a group of Palestinians gathered outside a charity providing hot meals in the Nuseirat refugee camp.

At least five people, including a woman and her adult daughter, were killed in the strike, according to the Awda hospital, which received the casualties.

A separate strike on a tent killed a father, mother and their daughter in the town of Zwaeida, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah. The hospital said the explosion tore the man's body in half.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.