Khemais Jhinaoui tells Martin Bentham the return of tourists after Islamic State atrocities would help safeguard a pioneering political system
Tunisia’s foreign minister has issued a new appeal to Britain to protect his country’s “unique” attempt to forge a democratic Arab state and help it defeat the threat of Islamic State terrorism.
Khemais Jhinaoui told the Evening Standard during an interview in Tunis that the north African nation was seeking to create a “modern Muslim country” that combined Islam with international values of human rights and democracy.
He said that tighter security, and a new barrier under construction along the troubled Libyan border, were already helping to bolster his country’s fledgling democracy and counter the damage caused by last year’s IS killings in Sousse and other terrorist attacks.
But he warned that his country still needed more assistance from Britain, including security co-operation and an end to the Foreign Office warning against travel to Tunisia, to revive its economy and avoid falling into an IS “trap” which would destroy tolerance and freedom.
Mr Jhinaoui’s comments come ahead of the June 26 anniversary of the Sousse attack in which 30 Britons and eight others died, and only 18 months after Tunisia’s President Mohamed Beji Caid Essebsi became the country’s first freely elected leader in December 2014.
Mr Jhinaoui said the two events were linked and that IS had carried out the Sousse killings and other attacks in Tunisia in an attempt to undermine his country’s economy and wreck its pioneering democracy.
“These people are attacking Tunisia because Tunisia is the anti-model of their system,” Mr Jhinaoui told the Standard.
“You have a modern Muslim country espousing international values of democracy, liberty and human rights. They [Islamic State] want to impose something going back to the Middle Ages, which is contrary to the values that Tunisian people are practising and aspiring to achieve in the future.”
Mr Jhinaoui admitted that his government had “failed” by allowing the Sousse attack and that the “mess” in neighbouring Libya was adding to the IS threat to his country. Security advice from Britain was, he said, already helping Tunisia to counter this problem.
But he warned that his country needed more British help and complained that the Foreign Office’s failure to alter its advice against travel to Tunisia was making it harder to overcome the damage caused by IS.
“We would like them to assess what is going on here from a security point of view and if they feel that things are improving it should be reflected in the travel advice.
“Until now we didn’t see that and it’s quite frustrating to us. Since Sousse there is tremendous progress.
“This is a tolerant country which is doing its best to protect its citizens and its guests and to secure its sensitive sites, including tourist sites.”
standard.co.uk
