The Levant Files

Algeria’s pledge to protect Tunisia comes amid escalating tensions with the UAE, highlighting a wider struggle for influence in North Africa, writes A. Cheref. By Abdelkader Cheref Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s televised summer pledge to defend Tunisia from external threats both bolstered bilateral ties and sparked discontent over Algiers’ growing regional influence. Warning that Algeria treats an attack on Tunisia as a threat to its own sovereignty, Tebboune claimed secret forces are trying to break their ties and isolate its North African neighbour. Using the Algerian dialect, he also warned: "Whoever brings terrorism to Tunisia or near Tunisia, we will destroy him in his parents' tent". While he did not name a specific hostile force, this has been interpreted as a direct reference to the UAE, which has been accused of trying to destabilise Algeria after years of disagreements over Western Sahara, the Sahel, and other regional conflicts. ...

Tunisia is facing mounting domestic and international pressure as its political and economic crises deepen. The latest flashpoint is the deteriorating health of 85-year-old Rached Ghannouchi, the imprisoned leader of the Ennahda movement. According to reports from Anadolu Agency and the Middle East Monitor, Ghannouchi recently launched a hunger and medication strike from his hospital bed. His plight underscores the severe democratic backsliding and human rights abuses characterizing President Kais Saied's increasingly authoritarian rule. The legal persecution of Ghannouchi has reached unprecedented levels this year. As reported by Al Jazeera, a Tunisian court formally sentenced the Ennahda leader to life in prison on June 3, 2026. This latest verdict adds to a staggering cumulative sentence; according to the Middle East Eye, the opposition figurehead is already serving over 150 years in prison on a multitude of charges that his supporters widely dismiss as politically motivated. Hi...

Never before has the Arab world, North Africa, and the wider region sent so many flags to football's biggest stage As the twenty-third FIFA World Cup prepares to kick off across the United States, Mexico and Canada from June 11 to July 19, one storyline towers above the rest for fans from Rabat to Tehran: the greater region stretching from Morocco and Egypt across the Levant to Türkiye, Saudi Arabia and Iran has never been so powerfully represented. A record ten national teams from this vast cultural and geographic belt have booked their places at the first 48-team finals, a tally without precedent in the tournament's 96-year history. The expansion to 48 teams has opened the door, but it is the depth of talent and decades of institutional investment that have walked through it. From North Africa's perennial heavyweights to first-time debutants, here are the ten teams carrying the hopes of millions. North Africa's Established Powers Morocco arrive as the region's sta...

As President Kais Saied tightens his authoritarian grip, Tunisians take to the streets in the largest wave of demonstrations since his 2021 power grab — but the tools of resistance are shrinking fast Fifteen years after the Arab Spring ignited a revolution that once made Tunisia the world's brightest democratic hope, the North African nation is burning again — this time not with the euphoria of uprising, but with the fury of a people watching their hard-won freedoms systematically dismantled. Demonstrations have erupted across Tunisia, from the capital Tunis to the industrial city of Gabès, fuelled by a cascading series of political crises: mass political trials handing out sentences of up to 66 years, the forced shuttering of the country's most respected civil society organizations, the imprisonment of journalists, lawyers, and opposition leaders, and an economy offering little hope to an increasingly desperate population. A Nation's Democratic Flame Flickering Out Fifteen...

Tunisia's trajectory from a beacon of democratic hope following the 2011 Arab Spring to its current state of authoritarian regression represents one of the most concerning developments in North African politics. President Kais Saied's consolidation of power has manifested in increasingly repressive measures, most notably through the April 2025 mass show trials that sentenced 37 individuals to harsh prison terms ranging from 4 to 74 years. These trials, characterized by egregious violations of due process, signal the judiciary's weaponization against political opposition, journalists, and civil society actors. The legal proceedings themselves reveal the hollowness of Tunisia's judicial independence. Defendants were denied physical presence in the courtroom, observers were barred mainly from attendance, and the actual hearings lasted mere minutes without opportunity for defense statements or cross-examinations. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has rightfully cond...

A Tunisian military court has delivered lengthy prison sentences to several high-profile opposition figures and former officials, including ex-Prime Minister Youssef Chahed and former presidential chief of staff Nadia Akacha, in a mass trial concerning charges of "conspiring against the internal security of the state." Details of the preliminary verdicts were reported by Middle East Eye and Tunisian news outlet Le Maghreb , citing proceedings at the Permanent Military Court of Tunis. The sentences, many delivered in absentia, mark a significant escalation in the ongoing crackdown on dissent under President Kais Saied. According to Le Maghreb , which published details of the preliminary judgments, former Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, who currently resides abroad, received a 14-year sentence. Nadia Akacha, once a close advisor to President Saied before falling out with him and leaving the country, was sentenced to 12 years. Both were tried in absentia. The trial involved appr...