Tunisia's president asks US for help
Visiting Washington to attend US President Barack Obama’s Africa summit, Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki said that Tunisia “feels the burden” of being the last potential success story from the Arab Spring.
Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki made an impassioned plea Aug. 5 for a dozen US Blackhawk helicopters to fight terrorists who he said would try to sabotage upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections.
Marzouki, in Washington to attend US President Barack Obama’s Africa summit, warned an audience at the Atlantic Council that Tunisia was entering “the most dangerous three months in our history.”
Given the disappointing and even tragic results of uprisings elsewhere in the region, Marzouki said Tunisia — where the self-immolation of a fruit seller in December 2010 touched off what became known as the Arab Spring — “must be a success story. … If Tunisia fails, you can say goodbye to democracy in the Arab world for a century.”
In comparison to Egypt, Libya and Syria, Tunisia has done reasonably well.
