• Tunisia, Saied squeeze: twenty senior government officials removed

  • Tunisia, the president freezes Parliament and responds to accusations: "It is not a coup d'etat"

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July 30, 2021 The National Security Advisor, Ridha Gharsallaoui, has been appointed interim Minister of the Interior, announced on Thursday evening the President of Tunisia, Kaïs Saïed, who clarified how the appointment is "temporary", pending form a new government.



This is the first position conferred by the head of state after he deposed the prime minister and a number of ministers and government officials last Sunday, suspended the activities of Parliament for a month and replaced the director general of public TV, Mohamed. Lassaad Dahech.



During the ceremony in which Gharsallaoui was sworn in, the president gave a speech in response to those in Tunisia who accuse him of having carried out a coup d'état, and to the international community that urges him to respect the rule of law: "I want to tell you and the whole world that I am committed to applying the Constitution, and even more so to rights and freedoms ".



Saïed stressed that, since the outbreak of the institutional crisis five days ago, "no one has been arrested, no one has been deprived of their rights, on the contrary the law is fully applied". 



Interview with Blinken


The Tunisian president "explained to me that he is trying to bring Tunisia back on the democratic path and to act in conformity with the Constitution", declared the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, referring to the conversation he had with Saied.



In an interview with Al Jazeera, Blinken said that Saied had "explained at length" the reasons for his actions. "We sincerely hope that Tunisia will return to this democratic path, act in accordance with the Constitution, re-establish Parliament and equip itself with a government to meet the needs of the population," added the head of US diplomacy.