The Financial Times quotes Rafik Hariri Center Senior Fellow Karim Mezran on Tunisian President Caid Sebsi’s reaction to the Bardo Museum massacre:
But Karim Mezran, Tunisia expert and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, recalls that extremist violence in the late 1980s was used by the ousted regime of former dictator Zein al-Abidine Ben Ali to close off the political space and persecute moderate Islamists.
“The fear now is that something similar could happen.” He said. “But so far the first signs are positive. I think Sebsi is much too smart to do that but he is not the problem, it is those behind him who are. He is elderly, so what if he gets pushed aside? The fear is the dynamics within Nida Tunis.”