Why did the Saudi Foreign Minister go to Tunisia in this situation?

In light of the recent political developments in Tunisia, the Saudi Foreign Minister stressed his support for stability and security during his visit to the Tunisia, but a number of observers have expressed skepticism, accusing Riyadh of seeking to intensify interference in Tunisia’s internal affairs are in the form of regional competition with Qatar and Turkey.

To answer this question, one must consider the internal factions of Tunisia and the regional rivalries of Saudi Arabia with an ideological basis, of which Tunisia has now become one of the puzzles.

Given that the Ennahda movement holds a parliamentary majority and that ousted Prime Minister Hisham al-Mashishi is also affiliated with the movement, it has effectively targeted the president’s decisions.

The presence of the Saudi Foreign Minister in Tunisia and his emphasis on respecting the decisions of the President of this country show that Riyadh, as expected, intervened in the internal crisis in Tunisia and sided with Qais Saeed in the factions of the country against the Islamist movement Ennahda. Taken with the tendencies of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Although the Ennahda movement has not confirmed or denied any affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood in its founding statement, Rashid al-Ghannouchi, chairman and founder of the Ennahda movement, is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s global guidance office, and some refer to the movement as the Muslim Brotherhood. Tunisia count. The Ennahda and Al-Ghannouchi movements strongly condemned the ousting of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi from the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013, calling it a coup.

Al-Ghannouchi denied the Muslim Brotherhood’s description of terrorism on October 28, 2015, and told Al Jazeera that if Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whom he described as the coup commander, traveled to Tunisia, he would He will not welcome.

On May 26, 2016, Mohsen al-Sudani, a representative of the Ennahda movement, and Jalal al-Arghi, a leader of the movement, emphasized that the Ennahda movement was proud of its connection to the Muslim Brotherhood and had intellectual and cultural ties with the group.

The Saudi Foreign Minister’s support for the recent decisions of the Tunisian president shows that Riyadh does not want the Ennahda movement to remain in power and act with the approach of the Muslim Brotherhood in Tunisia due to ideological differences and opposition to political Islam in the region.

An example of this behavior of the Saudis was evident in the Arab Spring, and one of the best examples in this regard is Tunisia itself. The Arab Spring, which happened to start in Tunisia and spread to other Arab countries, worried the government of Riyadh and some other hereditary governments in the region, such as the UAE, because they were worried about the spread of the Arab Spring and the overthrow of their regimes.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia, which saw themselves in danger of spreading the Arab Spring, tried until the last moment to support the governments based in these countries and try to contain or divert the Arab revolutions.

It was in this connection that Saudi Arabia, in the shadow of the Arab Spring in Tunisia, made every effort to ensure the survival of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, but a widespread wave of protests eventually led to his ouster and his escape to Saudi Arabia.