Tunisian party leader denies allegations of UAE links

By Iman Ghali

TUNIS (AA) - Mohsen Marzouk, head of the Project of Tunisia Movement (which holds 21 out of 217 seats in parliament), has denied recent media reports that he was somehow linked to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Speaking on Thursday in the capital Tunis, Marzouk described the reports as “silly rumors”.

“I am an agent of Tunisia,” he said. “My policy is the Tunisian flag.”

“Anything else is mere rumor,” he added.

Recent media reports had hinted at a relationship -- the precise nature of which was not specified -- between Marzouk and the wealthy Arab Gulf state, with some media outlets describing him as the UAE’s “man in Tunisia".

Notably, earlier Thursday, Marzouk announced his party’s withdrawal from Tunisia’s 2016 Carthage Declaration. Signed by nine political parties, the document laid out the priorities of a proposed unity government.

Marzouk also called for the formation of a technocrat government with a view to “correcting Tunisia’s current political and economic trajectory”.

Tunisia’s current government officially assumed its ruling mandate in mid-2016. It is the eighth government to take power since the country was rocked by a popular uprising in early 2011.