MOSCOW, October 30 (Itar-Tass) - A suicide bomber blowing himself up on the beach in front of a seaside hotel in the Tunisian resort city of Sousse has meant an underhand blow at moderate Islamists in Tunisia, Mikhail Margelov, the chairman of the Federation Council International Affairs Committee, told reporters on Wednesday.
He said the situation in Tunisia was aggravating; the Islamist authorities were fighting against Islamist terrorists to the extent they could, while the secular opposition was staging protests against the Islamist authorities. Margelov said that while the suicide bomber had not been identified, there were indications of his belonging to militants. He chose a large European-style hotel, the Ryadh Palms, and there was no loss of life only for the reason that he could not get inside the hotel. “The terrorist act coincided in time with the government’s counter-terrorist operation in the heartland of the country,” Margelov added.
He said the blast in Sousse had disrupted the unspoken arrangement that there should be no terrorist acts in resort areas of the countries that suffer from the aftereffects of the Arab Spring. The ravaged economies of these countries heavily depend on the tourism business. Therefore, he believes that the terrorist blast on Wednesday amounted to an underhand blow at moderate al-Nahda Islamists ruling in Tunisia. The Arab Spring has shaken statehood in Tunisia, and both moderate and extremist Islamists became more active, Margelov holds.