Saudi Arabia pledges to provide support for Tunisia

TUNIS - Saudi Arabia pledged on Sunday to provide the necessary support for Tunisia, which is suffering a political, economic and health crisis, the Tunisian presidency said on Sunday.

Saudi State Minister for African Affairs Ahmed Abdul Aziz Kattan met President Kais Saied in Tunis and senior officials held talks afterward to discuss cooperation, the presidency said in a statement.

Saied last month dismissed the prime minister, froze parliament and assumed executive authority in a sudden intervention that his Islamist opponents have labelled a coup but that he said was necessary to save the country from collapse.

He appointed on Wednesday Sami el Hichri as director general of national security and Shukri Riahi as commander of the National Guard.

Supporters of Saied have cast his intervention as a welcome reset for the 2011 revolution after years of economic stagnation under a political class that has often appeared more interested in its own narrow advantage than in national gain.