"but here in Tunisia we don’t have this problem. We are not interested in the fight between Israel and Syria,”The President of Tunisia has said that Salafis in his country pose a “threat to democracy,” but called on his security forces to not resort to the torture and suppression that plagued the country until last year.
In a wide-ranging interview with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, to be broadcast later on Tuesday but seen exclusively by Al-Akhbar, Moncef Marzouki also said he was opposed to arming the Syrian opposition but said Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was "finished."
Speaking on Assange’s Russia Today chat show Marzouki said the extremist Islamists, who have seen an increase in their influence since the fall of dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali last year, seek to undermine democracy.
“We’re going to face some hard issues, like the Salafist movement, you know – that it's extremely pro-right wing movement here in Tunisia and they are really...they can be a danger to democracy and we have to tackle the problem from the political point of view, we have to discuss with them and so forth,” the interim president said.
“Some of them are not accepting to have any kind of political discussion and some of them are going to present a kind of threat against democracy,” he added.
In recent months Tunisian Salafis have called for the death the owner of an independent TV channel after he broadcast the French film "Persepolis," based on an account of a woman growing up in Iran under religious rule following the 1979 Islamic revolution, while other protests have called for the introducing of non-democratic Islamic rule.
Analysts have said the actions of the Salafis have forced the moderate Islamists Ennahda, the largest party in the parliament, to take more extreme positions.
However Marzouki stressed that Tunisian security forces must not use the repressionary tactics common under former dictator Ben Ali, who was deposed from power last year in a people’ uprising that began a series of revolutions across the Arab world.
“When I talk with the police and the army leaders I say 'Look, we have to take this problem very cautiously but please no more torture and no more unfair trial like we have had under the dictatorships'. We have to take this problem very seriously but to stick on the human right values,” he said.
The Tunisian leader also called for peace in Syria, and distanced himself from calls for foreign intervention. In February Tunisia hosted the inaugural “Friends of Syria” event, with countries opposed to the regime of Bashar Assad meeting to discuss an action plan for unseating the dictator.
During the same event the Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia Prince Saud al-Faisal said it was an “excellent idea” to provide weapons to the military opposition in Syria, sparking criticism that the event was pushing for foreign intervention.
Speaking to Assange, Marzouki distanced himself from backing the insurgents and called for a negotiated settlement.
“We are not supporting any kind of foreign intervention in Syria. I do believe that giving weapons to Syrians would lead to civil war. I think it's not a good choice. I still believe that the only solution must be political, and that we have to find common... common ground between opposition and the regime. I still believe that the only solution is the Yemeni scenario,” he said.
Asked about the leader of the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah, which has backed President Assad’s claims that he is fighting a foreign-backed uprising, Marzouki said he had lost friends in the Arab world with his stance.
“Nasrallah and people like him, you know, think that Syria is... because he's, you know, against Israel they can forgive to this dictatorship everything, but here in Tunisia we don’t have this problem. We are not interested in the fight between Israel and Syria,” said.
“I really... I can’t understand the position of Nasrallah. I can say and tell you that Nasrallah was very, very popular after the... (war) in 2006 because of the battle against Israel, but now, you know, his popularity is completely finished, you know, here in Tunisia and in the whole Arab world.”
(Al-Akhbar)
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