A comprehensive approach to thwarting the networks of chaos: Kais Saied tightens the screws on Tunisia’s Muslim Brotherhood
Tunisian President Kais Saied has stressed the failure of attempts to inflame tensions in his country, pledging to confront networks of corruption and those seeking to provoke unrest, in an apparent reference to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Saied made the remarks during a meeting with Health Minister Mustapha Ferjani, Minister of Equipment and Housing and Acting Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy Salah Zouari, and Minister of Social Affairs Issam Lahmar at the Carthage Palace in central Tunis, according to a statement issued by the Tunisian presidency on Thursday.
Saied stated that “the first natural prerequisite for meeting the demands of the Tunisian people is dismantling the networks of corruption,” praising “the awareness of the Tunisian people in thwarting all attempts to inflame tensions by every possible means, whether by setting fires, cutting off water and electricity, or mistreating administrative employees when they provide even the most basic services.”
He stressed that “many issues, despite differences in their levels of seriousness and their consequences, remain national matters that all require a comprehensive approach aimed at eliminating their causes and effects.”
Saied also emphasized that “we are racing against time, and this stage is one of achievement and action, in accordance with the will of the Tunisian people in all fields and throughout the country.”
He affirmed that the Tunisian people “will thwart all attempts to sow doubt and all the plans still being devised by networks that take on every color and mobilize their agents; they have no place, nor do those they have recruited.”
Saied also reiterated that the polluting units of the Gabes Chemical Complex “will be dismantled according to a clear strategy,” following a field visit to Gabes Governorate in southeastern Tunisia.
The Tunisian presidency said in a post on its official page that Saied “affirmed that the environmental issue is a national issue, and that the city of Gabes has perhaps paid a heavy price as a result of the chemical complex.”
Residents of Gabes, which suffers from high levels of pollution, are demanding the dismantling of the chemical complex’s units and an end to the suffering of hundreds of thousands of families exposed to toxic gases.
Since October, residents have organized a series of protests and strikes against pollution, demanding implementation of a government decision issued in 2017 but never implemented. The decision calls for the dismantling of the industrial units of the Tunisian Chemical Complex, particularly amid the repeated cases of mass suffocation reported in the region.
Observers believe that the Muslim Brotherhood organization and its networks embedded within state institutions are seeking to increase tensions in the country and exploit crises involving essential services, such as water and electricity, in order to stir confusion and unrest.
