A Tunisian opposition leader warned the government on Saturday of a “public uprising” if it did not retract an invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to attend an IT summit in November this year.
“I call on the Tunisian authorities to immediately swallow its invitation to war criminal Sharon,” Sheikh Rashed Al-Ghanoushi, leader of the banned Islamic Renaissance movement, told IslamOnline.net from his exile in London.
Ghanoushi stressed that the Tunisian people are boiling over the planned visit by Sharon. “They stand on the verge of a sweeping public uprising,” he said, asserting that their position on the controversial visit “is echoed by all opposition powers” in the country.
“The government,” Ghanoushi added, “is inviting a man who is responsible for the [1982] Sabra and Shatila massacre and the killing of Egyptian prisoners.”
The opposition leader also accused Sharon of having “Tunisian blood on his hand.” By inviting Sharon, according to him, the government is twisting the knife in the heart of the Palestinian cause.
