Tunisia’s President Kais Saied would make visit to Libya
The office of Tunisia’s President Kais Saied announced its visit to Libya on Wednesday, it’s actually the first visit held by a president of state between the neighboring countries since 2012, in a new step by its new UN-backed administration.
The president’s office stated that Saied’s visit is to show Tunisia’s support for the democratic process in Libya after that the new interim Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah present its swearing on Monday with promising to unify the separated country and lead it to December elections. But, the statement did not identify the personalities whom Saied would meet.
Late last year, Tunisia hosted UN-backed discussions between representatives of Libya’s warring factions, which contributed to facilitate the way for the fragile breakthrough.
In fact, oil-rich Libya was a major customer for Tunisian farm produce and building materials as well as migrant labor, before that it entered on the disorder after the 2011 overthrow of Moammar al-Gaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising.
Unfortunately, the long years of disorder have conducted to extended border closings, which deteriorated the business sector, notably in the informal trade in consumer goods that constitute fundamental economic in border areas.
Otherwise, consecutive Tunisian governments sought to prevent publicly taking parties between Libya’s rival administrations in the east and west that fought for long time before deciding this week to form the new UN-backed unity government led by Dbeibeh.
Last year, the common front ruined when the current Tunisian president accused the Islamist Ennahda party that constitutes the largest bloc in parliament, of being too close to the authorities in western Libya and their Turkish backers.