Region

TUNIS — Tunisians are to vote again on Sunday in elections for a parliament stripped of its powers, the final pillar of President Kais Saied’s remake of politics in the birthplace of the Arab Spring.

The second-round vote comes as the North African country grapples with a grave economic crisis and deep political divisions over Saied’s July 2021 power grab.

Some 262 candidates, including just 34 women, are running for 131 seats in an election whose first round last month saw just 11.2 per cent of registered voters take part.

That was the lowest turnout of any national vote since the 2011 revolt that overthrew Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali and triggered copycat uprisings across the Arab world.

The final round comes 18 months after Saied sacked the government and suspended parliament, later moving to seize control of the judiciary and pushing through a constitution last July that gave his office almost unlimited executive power.

Youssef Cherif, the director of Columbia Global Centers in Tunis, said Tunisians had a “lack of interest” in politics.

“This parliament will have very little legitimacy, and the president, who is all-powerful thanks to the 2022 constitution, will be able to control it as he sees fit,” he said.

Lawyer and political expert Hamadi Redissi said the new assembly would “not have to approve the government, nor can it censor it without a two-thirds majority” of both parliament and a council of regional representatives, whose make-up has yet to be defined.

The legislature will have almost zero power to hold the president to account.

As during the first round, most political parties — which have been sidelined by a system that bans candidates from declaring allegiance to a political grouping — called for a boycott.

On the streets of Tunis, campaigning has been muted, with few posters on the walls and few well-known candidates.

And despite Saied’s break with the traditional political class, many Tunisians are sceptical of all politicians.

“I don’t feel I can trust anyone, so I’m not going to vote,” said carpenter Ridha.

‘Edge of collapse’ 

The electoral board has organised televised debates to try to spark interest among those voters who supported Saied’s bid for the presidency in 2019.

But Tunisians, struggling with inflation of over 10 per cent and repeated shortages of basic goods from milk to petrol as well as transport workers’ and teachers’ strikes, have more urgent priorities than politics.

Last week’s delivery of 170 trucks of food, a gift from the Tripoli-based government of war-torn Libya, was seen by many as a humiliation.

Redissi said the country was on “the edge of collapse”.

“Along with soaring prices, we’re seeing shortages and the president is pathetically blaming ‘speculators, traitors and saboteurs’,” he said.

But Cherif said that, despite widespread discontent, it was “possible that the status quo will continue as long as the average Tunisian doesn’t see a credible alternative to President Saied”.

Saied faced calls to quit after the first round of the election, but the opposition remains divided into three blocs: The National Salvation Front including the Islamist-inspired Ennahda party, a grouping of leftist parties, and the Free Destourian Party, seen as nostalgic for Ben Ali’s iron-fisted rule.

The election takes place in the shadow of Tunisia’s drawn-out negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout worth some $2 billion.

Cherif said the talks were stumbling over the United States’ concerns for the future of Tunisian democracy and Saied’s apparent reluctance to “accept the IMF’s diktats” on politically sensitive issues including subsidy reform.

Redissi said there was a “blatant discrepancy” between Saied’s rhetoric against the IMF and the programme his government proposed to the lender “on the sly”.

“We have a president who opposes his own government,” he said.

He said the country’s only hope lay in a “rescue plan” proposed by the powerful UGTT trade union federation, the League for Human Rights, Tunisia’s Bar Association and the socio-economic rights group FTDES.

SAQQARA, Egypt — Egypt unveiled on Thursday a gold-laced mummy and four tombs, including of an ancient king’s “secret keeper”, discovered in the Saqqara necropolis south of Cairo.

The vast burial site at the ancient Egyptian capital Memphis, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is home to more than a dozen pyramids, animal graves and old Coptic Christian monasteries.

Archaeologist Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s former antiquities minister, announced the latest discovery, dating from the fifth and sixth dynasties — around the 25th to the 22nd centuries BC — to reporters at the dig site.

The largest tomb, “decorated with scenes of daily life”, belonged to a priest, inspector and supervisor of nobles named Khnumdjedef, said Hawass.

It was found in the pyramid complex of Unas, the last king of the fifth dynasty, who reigned some 4,300 years ago.

Another tomb belonged to Meri, who according to Hawass served as the pharaoh’s appointed “secret keeper”, a priestly title held by a senior palace official bestowing the power and authority to perform special religious rituals.

A third tomb belonged to a priest in pharaoh Pepi I’s pyramid complex, and the fourth to a judge and writer named Fetek, Hawass added.

Fetek’s tomb included a collection of “the largest statues” ever found in the area, Mostafa Waziri, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, told reporters.

Down a 15 metre shaft, the expedition also found a large limestone sarcophagus that had remained sealed “just as the ancient Egyptians left it 4,300 years ago”, Hawass said.

Inside was a mummy featuring “gold-leaf covering” that belonged to a man named Hekashepes, according to Hawass, who described it as one of the oldest and most complete non-royal mummies ever found in the country.

Egypt has unveiled many major archaeological discoveries in recent years.

Critics say the flurry of excavations has prioritised finds shown to grab media attention over hard academic research.

But the discoveries have been a key component of Egypt’s attempts to revive its vital tourism industry after years of political unrest, as well as after the COVID pandemic.

The government’s plans — the crowning jewel of which is the long-delayed inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum at the foot of the pyramids in Giza — aim to draw in 30 million tourists a year by 2028, up from 13 million before the pandemic.

The country of 104 million inhabitants is suffering from a severe economic crisis.

According to official figures, Egypt’s tourism industry accounts for 10 per cent of GDP and some two million jobs.

BEIRUT — Families of the victims of the deadly 2020 Beirut port explosion rallied Thursday to support the judge who has resumed work on the politically-charged case in a daring challenge to Lebanon's entrenched ruling elite.

Experts have warned that the battle between investigative judge Tarek Bitar and top prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat, who has charged him with insubordination, will be a critical test for the faltering justice system of the crisis-hit Mediterranean nation.

Bitar this week defied Lebanon's ruling class to charge several powerful figures — including Oueidat, the prosecutor general — in connection to the blast, and revived a probe that was suspended for over a year amid vehement political and legal pushback.

Oueidat in turn charged Bitar for insubordination and for "usurping power", ordered the release of all those detained in the case, and slapped a travel ban on them and the judge.

Bitar was called for questioning on Thursday, a summons he did not attend.

Security was tight at the palace of justice in Beirut, where dozens of family members of the victims gathered "to support the investigation" led by Bitar, some carrying posters of those who died.

"We had faith in justice, but the mask has now fallen," said protester Abdo Matta, 54, who lost his son in the explosion.

"We will never stop, we want to know who killed our children."

One of history's biggest non-nuclear explosions, the August 4, 2020 blast destroyed much of Beirut's port and surrounding areas, killing more than 215 people and injuring over 6,500.

Authorities said hundreds of tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser haphazardly stocked in a port warehouse since 2014 had caught fire, causing the explosion.

'Legal hysteria' 

No official has been held accountable, and relatives of the victims and rights groups have blamed the disaster on a political class widely seen as inept.

Lawmaker Melhem Khalaf, who represents 1,400 people affected by the blast, said he will meet Thursday with the justice minister and the chief of the Supreme Judicial Council, which is set to convene later in the day.

Khalaf called on the justice minister to “find solutions” so that the probe can proceed, describing the situation as “judicial and legal hysteria”.

Bitar was forced to suspend his probe for 13 months after a barrage of lawsuits, mainly from politicians he had summoned on charges of negligence.

Lebanon has a history of political assassinations, and authorities are now “entirely responsible for the judge’s safety”, the families warned, referring to the move against him as a “coup d’etat”.

A defiant Bitar told AFP Wednesday he will not step down from this case, adding that the chief prosecutor “has no authority” to intervene.

The judicial arm-wrestling between Bitar and Oueidat risks deepening Lebanon’s mounting woes, and some warn it may be the last nail in the coffin of a notoriously politicised justice system.

“The future of this case is fraught with danger,” said legal expert Paul Morcos.

The complex case is subject to “immense political pressure that Lebanon’s justice system cannot surmount, creating this huge rift”, he added.

The powerful Iran-backed movement Hizbollah has repeatedly called for Bitar’s dismissal, and this week expressed support for Oueidat.

Hizbollah lawmaker Ibrahim Al Moussawi described Oueidat’s decision as “a step in the right direction to restore confidence in judges and the judiciary after it was destroyed by some of its members”.

But Samy Gemayel, a lawmaker opposed to Hizbollah, warned the judicial battle “could lead to the total collapse of the justice system”, and called on citizens to defend Lebanon against “a mafia and an armed militia”.

Among those ordered released by Oueidat were dual American-Lebanese citizen Ziad Al Ouf, who his lawyer Sakher al-Hashem said had already “arrived in the United States, and will not return to Lebanon”.

A judicial official said that the United States had lobbied for his release.

On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International called on the United Nations Human Rights Council to “urgently pass a resolution to create an impartial fact-finding mission” into the port explosion.

“The Lebanese authorities have repeatedly obstructed the domestic investigation into the explosion,” the joint statement said.

TEHRAN — Iran imposed sanctions on Wednesday on 34 individuals and entities from the European Union and Britain in reaction to similar measures they have taken over Tehran’s response to months-long protests.

Tehran’s move comes two days after the EU and Britain slapped another round of sanctions on the Islamic republic, which has been rocked by protests since the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini.

Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, died in custody after being arrested for allegedly breaching the country’s strict dress code for women.

The sanctions imposed by Tehran include the blocking of accounts and transactions in Iran’s banks and the “prohibition of visa issuance and entry” to Iran, the foreign ministry said.

Iran accuses the people and organisations of “supporting terrorism and terrorist groups, instigating and encouragement to terrorist acts and violence against Iranian people”.

It also accuses them of “interference in the domestic affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran and fomenting violence and unrest and dissemination of false information about Iran”.

The sanctions include 25 listed names from the EU and nine from Britain.

France’s Radio J, the European Friends of Israel group, and 22 individuals including six members of the European Parliament are among those targeted.

The list also includes the Swedish-Danish right-wing extremist Rasmus Paludan, who burned a copy of the Koran in Sweden on Saturday, sparking strong protests from the Muslim world.

Western sanctions 

The EU on Monday imposed its fourth round of sanctions against Iran since the protests started, placing 37 more officials and entities on an asset freeze and visa ban blacklist.

Britain on the same day sanctioned five more Iranian officials, broadening its blacklist to 50 individuals and organisations it considers to be involved in dealing with the protests.

The new Iranian list also includes nine French nationals, among them Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo and the philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy.

Also targeted are three members of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which was already placed as an entity on a previous Iranian sanctions list for publishing caricatures of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In Britain, they include Victoria Prentis, the attorney general, army chief Patrick Sanders and the former defence secretary, Liam Fox.

The EU has already imposed sanctions on more than 60 Iranian officials and entities over the crackdown on protesters, including the morality police, state media and individual commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

But the 27-nation bloc has so far stopped short of blacklisting the IRGC as a whole as a “terrorist” organisation, despite calls from Germany and The Netherlands to do so.

Iran nuclear file 

Iran has warned the bloc against sanctioning the Revolutionary Guard, and EU officials are wary it could kill off stalled talks they have been mediating on reviving a 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran.

The agreement gave Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme to guarantee that Tehran could not develop or acquire a nuclear weapon — something it has always denied wanting to do.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, said he plans to go to Iran in February for “much needed” talks regarding the country’s cooperation with the agency.

The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, Mohammad Eslam, confirmed the news on Wednesday, saying the “planning and consultation for the visit... is on the agenda”.

But the negotiations between Tehran and worlds powers to revive the deal have been sidetracked during the more than four months of protests.

Hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed and thousands arrested in what Iranian authorities have labelled “riots”.

Iran’s judiciary has sentenced to death a total of 18 people in connection with the protests. Four of them have already been executed, triggering widespread international outrage.

PARIS — The United Nations on Wednesday inscribed an ancient city and its dam in war-torn Yemen and a futurist park in cash-strapped Lebanon on its world heritage list.

The UN cultural agency listed both as world heritage sites in danger, the first because of the conflict raging in Yemen since 2014, and the second because of “its alarming state of conservation” and the lack of resources in Lebanon to maintain it.

Seven archaeological sites were added in Yemen’s province of Marib for bearing witness to the achievements of the Saba kingdom from the first millennium BC to the arrival of Islam in around 630, UNESCO said.

The kingdom, known for the legendary Queen of Sheba, at the time controlled much of the incense route across the Arabian Peninsula.

The newly listed sites include the ancient city of Marib, two temples and the remains of the city’s ancient dam, a feat of ancient hydrological engineering whose bursting is mentioned in the Koran.

The UN body said it hoped the decision would help “mobilise the entire international community for the protection of sites”.

UNESCO’s world heritage committee also voted to add the Rachid Karameh International Fair in Lebanon’s northern coastal city of Tripoli to the list.

The concrete park, a short walk away from the seafront, was designed by legendary Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, but activists have warned it risked crumbling into ruin in recent years.

“The fair was the flagship project of Lebanon’s modernisation policy in the 1960s,” UNESCO said, describing it as “one of the major representative works of 20th century modern architecture” in the region.

Its inscription as a world heritage site in danger “opens access to enhanced international assistance” to preserve it.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who hails from the city, welcomed the decision as “a great achievement for Lebanon and Lebanese, especially for the city of Tripoli”.

Activists had been hoping for a UNESCO listing to open the way to donor funding to save the park, in a country mired since 2019 in one of the worst financial crises in recent history.

BEIRUT — Lebanon's campaigning judge Tarek Bitar, who is investigating the deadly 2020 Beirut port blast, charged the prosecutor general and seven others with probable intent to murder and other crimes, a judicial official said Tuesday.

The prosecution service, however, quickly pushed back, rejecting the resumption of the probe that led to the indictments of its most senior figure, Ghassan Oueidat, and the others, also accused of arson and sabotage.

One of history's biggest non-nuclear explosions destroyed most of Beirut port and surrounding areas on August 4, 2020, killing more than 215 people and injuring over 6,500.

Authorities said the mega-explosion was caused by a fire in a portside warehouse where a vast stockpile of the industrial chemical ammonium nitrate had been haphazardly stored for years.

Relatives of the dead have been holding monthly vigils, seeking justice and accountability over the disaster which they blame on the crisis-torn country's entrenched ruling class which is widely deemed inept and corrupt.

A US State Department spokesperson said in a tweet Tuesday that "we support and urge Lebanese authorities to complete a swift and transparent investigation into the horrific explosion at the Port of Beirut".

Bitar's probe has met with strong opposition from government figures and the powerful Shiite Muslim Hizbollah movement, which has accused him of political bias.

The judge was forced to suspend his probe for more than a year after a barrage of lawsuits, mainly from politicians he had summoned on charges of negligence.

"Port investigation: Tarek Bitar has gone mad," ran the headline of the pro-Hizbollah daily Al Akhbar, which also accused him of acting "on the basis of American orders and with European judicial support".

Bitar last week met with two French magistrates, who came to Beirut as part of the country's own investigation into the explosion that killed and injured French nationals.

Bitar had decided Monday, to widespread surprise, to resume his probe into the disaster, despite the strong political pressure against him.

Reopening the case after a 13-month suspension, Bitar charged an initial eight suspects, including General Security head Abbas Ibrahim and State Security agency chief Tony Saliba, and released five others.

In total, Bitar plans to question 13 suspects next month, including five officials whom Bitar indicted earlier — among them ex-prime minister Hassan Diab and former ministers.

According to the judicial official, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, Oueidat had in 2019 overseen a security services investigation into cracks in the warehouse where the ammonium nitrate was stored.

Lebanese state institutions have been reluctant to cooperate with the probe, which began the same month as the explosion.

In February 2021, Bitar’s predecessor as lead judge was removed from the case after he had charged several high-level politicians.

The interior ministry has also failed to execute arrest warrants issued by Bitar, further undermining his quest for accountability.

Iran-backed Hizbollah and its ally Amal called for demonstrations to demand his dismissal in October 2021, when a gun battle broke out at a Beirut rally and seven people were killed.