Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi chaired a meeting of the Supreme Council of the Armies yesterday to discuss protecting its borders from migration and smuggling, military cooperation with “sister” countries and the new draft law on civil service.

The meeting comes against the backdrop of a political crisis in the country after Essebsi’s announcement at the end of May that work on the Carthage Document II would be suspended because of a disagreement over the nature of governmental change and whether it should be partial or thorough.

The meeting also comes after Head of the Tunisian Government Youssef Chahed dismissed Interior Minister Lotfi Brahem last week a few days after a ship carrying refugees sunk and dozens died.

Source: Dismissed Tunisia interior minister planned coup with help of UAE

The meeting on Tuesday comes in light of the news revealed by a French report on the details of a failed coup attempt in Tunisia, a “UAE-planned overthrow of the democratic regime in the country”.

On Monday Le Monde Afrique website reported that Brahem secretly met with an official of the UAE intelligence services on the Tunisian island of Djerba where they planned a coup d’état in Tunisia.

The report, which was detailed by Al-Jazeera, revealed that the intelligence services in France, Germany, and Algeria uncovered the UAE plan and informed the Tunisian authorities about its details. The report stated that this meeting took place after the return of the UAE intelligence official from a meeting during the Paris Summit in Libya, organised by French President Emmanuel Macron on 29 May.

Up to now, neither the official authorities in Tunisia nor in the United Arab Emirates have issued any clarification on the news.

Tunisia: ‘Essebsi responsible for political crisis in the country’