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Confrontation between secular forces and Islamists in Tunisia to heighten - expert opinion

The situation in Tunisia aggravated after Member of Parliament Mohamad Brahmi was assassinated on July 25

Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, July 30 (Itar-Tass) - Confrontation between secular forces and Islamists in Tunisia will heighten, Boris Dolgov, foremost expert on the Middle East from the Institute of Oriental Studies, the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.

“It is obvious that confrontation between Islamists and secular forces in Tunisia will heighten,” he said. “Radicalization of the Islamist movement in Tunisia goes on. Tunisian Islamists are fighting in Syria. When they are back in Tunisia, the situation in the country will aggravate still more,” he said.

The expert has noted that Tunisia lacks a strong army that could play the same role in the confrontation with Islamists as the Egyptian military. He recalled that after the president of Tunisia Ben Ali had been ousted there were reforms and a considerable number of security services’ staffers were dismissed.

The situation in Tunisia aggravated after Member of Parliament Mohamad Brahmi was assassinated on July 25. Brahmi was known for his protests against Islamists whose representatives now hold the key posts in the national cabinet. Supporters of the secular parties in Tunisia held protest rallies in the subsequent days, some of them ending in clashes with police.

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