Erdogan, Ghannouchi meet; reveal close coordination

Ahmed Lamloum

The head of the Ennahda Movement, the Muslim Brotherhood branch in Tunisia, Rached Ghannouchi participated recently in the opening of a new mosque in Turkey.

Following the opening of the mosque, Ghannouchi met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The meeting was seen by some observers as indication that Ghannouchi’s movement is facing trouble.

The meeting also comes as the administration of US President Donald Trump considers designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. The Brotherhood is also losing its popularity, especially in Arab countries.

The meeting also sends different messages, especially with the Islamist militias that control Libyan capital Tripoli coming close to defeat at the hands of the Libyan National Army which is commanded by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar.

Tunisia also prepares for holding legislative elections after five months from now. The Muslim Brotherhood is afraid of incurring additional defeats in the elections.

The Media Section of Ennahda Movement issued a statement about Ghannouchi’s meeting with Erdogan. Nonetheless, the statement mentioned nothing meaningful about the meeting. It only said that Ghannouchi discussed “brotherly” relations between the Tunisia and Turkish peoples with the Turkish president and means of bolstering them.

The statement itself shows that so many things were said and had happened behind closed doors. The Ennahda Movement faces an existential threat, especially after losing its popularity, having failed to make any meaningful achievement on the Tunisian political stage.

While Ennahda loses popularity, other parties, including the constitutional Liberal Party and the Tahya Tounes Party which affiliated with Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, become increasingly popular.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said last week that President Trump made consultations with his national security team and some leaders of the Middle East region who share with him Muslim Brotherhood-related concerns.

She added that the proposal to tag the Brotherhood a terrorist organization was moving ahead.

Sanders revealed that those linked with the Brotherhood would face US sanctions if the group is designated as a terrorist organization.

Field Marshal Haftar called on his troops to keep fighting the Islamist militias controlling Tripoli in an audio that was aired on May 5.

“You have to teach you enemies a lesson,” Haftar said, calling the Islamic month of Ramadan a “month of jihad”.

Some of Muslim Brotherhood leaders do not probably realize that some of the rules of the game had already changed in the region, in a way that does not serve the interests of their movement.