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TUNIS — Opponents of Tunisian President Kais Saied on Tuesday slammed his decision to extend a months-long suspension of parliament, accusing him of dealing another blow to the country's nascent democracy.

Saied had on Monday vowed to press on with reforms to Tunisia's political system, months after he sacked the government, froze the legislature and assumed wide-ranging executive powers.

The former law professor announced an 11-week "popular consultation" to produce "draft constitutional and other reforms" ahead of a referendum next July 25.

That will mark one year since his power grab, which came as the North African country was mired in political and economic crises compounded by the coronavirus pandemic.

Saied had in October moved to rule by decree, escalating fears for the only democracy to have emerged from the 2011 Arab uprisings.

He said on Monday that parliament would remain suspended until new elections on December 17 next year, the anniversary of the start of the revolution that chased Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali from power.

That further isolated his nemesis, the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha Party, which has played a central role in Tunisian politics since Ben Ali's fall.

Many Tunisians, tired of a system seen as dysfunctional and corrupt, welcomed Saied's moves, but he has also faced growing opposition in the form of demonstrations at home and pressure from abroad.

Washington, however, gave a positive response to Saied's announcement.

"We welcome President Saied's announcement of a timeline outlining a path for political reform and parliamentary elections, and look forward to a reform process that is transparent and inclusive of diverse political and civil society voices," State Department spokesman Ned Price said.

The envoys of the G-7 powers plus the European Union had urged Tunisia on Friday to set a timetable for a return to democratic institutions.

On Tuesday, political analyst Slaheddine Jourchi said Saied was “determined to push through his political project to the end”.

Opponents have accused Saied of seeking to extend his one-man rule and unilaterally rebuild the political system.

Noureddine Taboubi, head of the powerful UGTT trade union, criticised the lack of a vision for tackling the country’s pressing social and economic woes.

“Until when are we going to discuss the constitution? People today have empty stomachs and are getting poorer,” he told journalists in the industrial hub of Sfax.

In a speech to union members, he said the union had supported Saied’s July 25 moves but “we didn’t give [him] a blank cheque”.

Yet, some in Tunis welcomed Saied’s latest move.

Nizar ben Ahmida, a 37-year-old teacher, stressed the importance of announcing a timeline.

But he said the president’s speech lacked details on “employment, poverty, marginalisation and prosecution of those who have committed crimes against this country”.

Tunis resident Nidhal said the election date was too far away.

“[Saied] is playing for time. He wants to implement his ideas,” the 35-year-old said.

‘Object of ridicule’ 

Saied said a consultation on constitutional reforms would be launched on January 1. These proposals would then be examined by a committee of experts appointed by the president, before being put to referendum.

But former Ennahdha MP Samir Dilou said the idea would “make Tunisia an object of ridicule”.

“Saied’s speech reflects the state of denial in which he lives and his refusal to listen to anyone,” Dilou told the daily Assabah.

Analyst Jourchi said developments would depend on how the public reacts.

“The street isn’t reassured. The economic situation is what concerns the Tunisian public,” he said.

Tunisia faces mounting public debt, inflation, 18 per cent unemployment and stalled negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for its fourth bailout since the revolution.

But the 63-year-old president’s focus has remained firmly on remaking the political system and tackling opponents — primarily Ennahdha — whom he accuses of corruption.

After seizing control of the judiciary in July, he has pushed judges to investigate alleged foreign financing for campaigns during 2019 parliamentary elections.

In Tunisia today, Jourchi said, “the big problem lies in the fact that he is continuing to rule by decree. His political conflict with his opponents will escalate and tensions will remain.”

BETHLEHEM, Palestinian Territories — After collecting dust for nearly two years, the 228 rooms at Bethlehem’s Ararat Hotel were scrubbed last month in anticipation of a post-lockdown Christmas boom, hopes that have again been dashed by the coronavirus.

A large Christmas tree and decorations did little to brighten a deserted lobby.

Like other hotels in Bethlehem, the Ararat has no guests, with the tree offering cheer to no one but the seven out of 105 employees who have not been fired.

“We were expecting 70 per cent occupancy for Christmas but all overseas reservations have been cancelled,” said Augustine Shomali, a manager at the hotel.

The people of Bethlehem — a Palestinian city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank where Christians believe Jesus was born — are used to welcoming an influx of tourists each December.

After a near-total pandemic lockdown last year, Bethlehem began to hope for a joyous Christmas when Israel, which controls all access points to the city, announced in October that it would reopen to foreign tourists on November 1.

But less than a month later, just as hotels were getting a makeover and businesses were replenishing their stocks in anticipation of the holiday season, Israel closed again after a case of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the virus was discovered.

Now, Shomali said the hotel is relying on the domestic market, with only a dozen rooms booked for a Christmas weekend that is normally fully occupied.

“We are trying to find any point of hope,” he said. “Things are harder now.”

Shomali said he closely followed news about Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport in the hope of a reopening to tourists, but Israeli media have reported that with the spread of Omicron the government is considering tightening restrictions, not loosening them.

This year, like last year, midnight mass in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve will be reserved for a small circle of people by invitation only.

One customer 

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, more than three million people visited Bethlehem on average each year.

More than a fifth of the city’s population is employed in tourism, and the jobless rate has risen from 23 per cent to 35 per cent through the pandemic, said Carmen Ghattas, spokeswoman for the municipality.

From her office overlooking Manger Square, where a life-sized Nativity scene has been installed at the foot of a towering tree, Ghattas laments she has no control over whether tourists can enter the city, even as other nations keep their borders open to vaccinated visitors.

“Here, tourists were not given this option. Tourists were just forbidden to enter and this affects our economy so badly,” she said.

The Palestinian National Authority, the civil authority in parts of the West Bank, is mired in an economic crisis and has only offered affected workers in Bethlehem’s hard-hit tourism sector a one-time stipend of 700 shekels ($224).

Israeli hotels and workers, by contrast, have been compensated by the Jewish state.

“There is no work,” said Afram Shaheen, sitting outside his Armenian ceramics shop next to the Church of the Nativity, built on the site where the faithful believe Christ was born in a manger.

“I open the shop, drink a cup of coffee and go home,” he told AFP, smoking a cigarette.

Shaheen said that since Bethlehem became the first Palestinian city to go into lockdown in March 2020, he has had just one customer, a French woman who bought $23 worth of ceramics — his total sales revenue so far during the pandemic.

Like many shop-owners catering to tourists in Bethlehem, Shaheen is selling old merchandise.

“I didn’t order anything new; there is no market, no demand.”

Next door, Nadia Hazboun sold olive wood icons and said the city’s workshops have ground to a halt.

“Many people sold their businesses,” she said, adding that in the absence of any government assistance, owners and employees were facing debt and lawsuits.

“This lockdown is a disaster,” she added, recalling days when she closed her store late at night.

Bethlehem has survived past crises, notably waves of unrest during the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that have also dampened tourism, and Shomali said residents were surviving on hope.

Asked if he believed next Christmas would be better, Shomali answered, “Next Christmas? I have hope for Easter.”

UNITED NATIONS, United States — Cross-border humanitarian aid to Syria remains vital, the United Nations secretary general said in an internal report on Tuesday, as a UN authorisation allowing aid into rebel-held areas in the country’s northwest without approval from Damascus is set to expire.

A rare moment of cooperation between the United States and Russia in July allowed for a six-month extension of activity at Bab Al Hawa, the only border crossing through which aid reaches the rebel stronghold of Idlib province. That authorisation is due to expire on January 10.

“Cross-border assistance remains lifesaving for millions of people in need in north-west Syria,” Antonio Guterres said in a confidential document obtained by AFP, adding that over four million people were in need of crucial assistance across the country.

The United States and several European nations believe the UN authorisation for the crossing between Syria and Turkey should renew automatically for an additional six months, without the need for a new vote.

But Russia, a key ally to the Damascus regime, has previously opposed the move, invoking Syrian sovereignty.

Moscow has linked any potential extension to Tuesday’s report, as well as a possible new vote.

The cross-border mechanism has been operating since 2020 through Bab Al Hawa, after the Russian-imposed removal in 2019 of three other access points in Syria.

In Tuesday’s document, the UN chief refers to another project for humanitarian operations, this time across the front lines, to reach Idlib.

“If implemented, this plan will make operations across the front lines more predictable and effective,” Guterres noted.

However, he insisted upon the importance of the Bab Al Hawa crossing.

“At this point such cross-line convoys, even if deployed regularly, could not replicate the size and scope of the cross-border operation,” he said.

Guterres said some 4.5 million people in Syria need help this winter, up 12 per cent from the previous year, because of the economic crisis and the global pandemic.

Only 2.9 per cent of the Syrian population is fully vaccinated, according to the report.

More than 3 million people live in Idlib province, much of which is controlled by rebels.

In June, the UN said around 2.4 million people there were in need of humanitarian aid.

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories — Nearly 10 years after Imad Al Hisso fled the civil war in Syria, he remains trapped in Gaza, a place he calls “a prison”, with no clear path to return home.

Gaza may seem an unlikely destination for those fleeing conflict.

The coastal Palestinian territory has been blockaded by Israel since 2007 when Hamas Islamists took power, and access to the enclave is tightly controlled by Israel and Egypt.

But after being advised by a friend that he could live safely in the strip, Hisso along with dozens of other Syrians slipped into Gaza through tunnels dug under Egyptian land.

“After the events began in Syria, I fled to Gaza in the hope of a better life,” he said, adding that he believed he would able to retrace his steps when the time came to leave.

He now lives in Rafah, southern Gaza, in a small house without a kitchen or furniture and with expired Syrian identity papers that he cannot renew.

To get new documents he would have to return to war-torn Syria, but he can’t get out of Gaza the same way he arrived.

The Egyptian army began destroying some underground tunnels in 2012, then demolished many more the following year.

Israel says Hamas uses tunnels to smuggle weapons and other materials to attack Israelis, and that the blockade is essential to contain threats.

Since Hisso left Egypt illegally, he said the authorities there would probably block him from entering and might arrest him should he attempt to leave Gaza using the Rafah crossing.

Gaza’s other entry and exit points are controlled by Israel which is officially at war with Syria and only lets Gazans transit its territory under strict conditions, such as in grave medical cases.

So Hisso finds himself trapped with no way to leave a territory wracked by poverty and unemployment.

“There is no work and no money, no access to healthcare or education,” said Hisso, who sometimes works laying tiles to support his five children, who also have no papers.

“I was surprised to find that the situation in Gaza was worse than in Syria,” he said.

“Gaza is the biggest prison in the world. If you go into Gaza, you can’t get out.”

‘Really miserable’ 

More than half of Gaza’s roughly 2 million population are descended from Palestinian refugees who fled their homes when Israel was created in 1948, and who today depend on United Nations aid.

The UN agency serving Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, does not consider Syrian refugees to be their responsibility and only partly helps them, Syrians said.

“UNRWA does not recognise my children, they always tell me ‘you are Syrian refugees and we are taking care of Palestinian refugees,’” said Donia Al Minyarawi, Hasso’s wife.

“When we arrived in Gaza, we thought it was a livable place. What we saw in Gaza is beyond imaginable. The situation is really miserable,” she said, adding that she suffered from several medical conditions she could not afford to treat.

Lina Moustafa Hassoun, 52, also arrived illegally in Gaza via a tunnel at the end of 2012 with her son Nawras, 24.

A Palestinian who formerly lived in Syria, Hassoun said she came to visit her sister and intended to stay for a month.

But mother and son were stranded when the tunnel they came through was closed. Their travel documents have also since expired.

“Life in Gaza is very difficult, it is impossible to travel and work. There is no stability there [in Syria] or here,” she told AFP.

Nawras films videos for another Syrian refugee, Warif Qassem, a chef who gives cooking lessons via his channel on YouTube.

Together with other Syrian refugees in Gaza, Qassem, 41, founded an association to advocate with Palestinian authorities and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Last year, UNHCR extricated nine Syrian families from Gaza through the Israeli airport in Tel Aviv.

Qassem said he was grateful for Gazans’ hospitality and appreciated their cuisine, but said their situation was complicated.

“We do our best to get around the challenges,” he said.

DUBAI — A senior Yemeni military commander was among 28 troops killed in fighting between government forces and Houthi rebels for the strategic city of Marib, defence ministry sources said on Monday.

“Nasser Al Zubiani, head of the government forces’ military operations, was killed along with 27 other soldiers during clashes with the Houthis in the past 24 hours south of Marib,” on source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

A second source confirmed Zubiani’s killing and the death toll.

Government forces and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels have been locked for months in a fierce battle for Marib, the government’s last stronghold and capital of the northern oil-rich province of the same name.

Fighting has escalated in recent weeks with thousands killed from both sides as a Saudi-led military coalition backing the government ramps air strikes on the rebels.

The rebels began a major push to seize Marib city in February and, after a lull, they renewed their offensive in September.

The Saudi-led coalition has been reporting high death tolls in almost daily strikes against the Houthis since October.

Yemen’s grinding conflict, which erupted in 2014, has displaced millions, and more than 80 per cent of the population of around 30 million require humanitarian assistance.

A UN Development Programme report last month said the war will have claimed 377,000 lives by the end of the year through both direct and indirect impacts.

Nearly 60 per cent of deaths will have been caused by consequences such as lack of safe water, hunger and disease, it said, suggesting that fighting will have directly killed over 150,000 people.