'Prime Minister Mohammed Ghanouchi said late Friday in a televised address that President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has surrendered power and left Tunis.
Ghanouchi said that he would serve as interim president, Reuters reported.
Al Arabiya said a six-member leadership council would be formed to rule the country until elections. The council will be led by the head of Parliament and will include the defense minister. The news service said he had fled to Malta.
"I vow that I will respect the constitution and implement the political, economic and social reforms that have been announced ... in consultation with all political sides including political parties and civil society," he said in the live address to a nation rocked by unrest.'
10 comments :
''Aljazeera is reporting that the plane of Bin Ali is now heading to a "Gulf country." Let me GUESS: which states habitually provides haven to ousted dictators??''
That's what Saddam should have done.
mojo finally catches on..
Lets hope this revolution continues to the other Arab dictatorships.
Catches on to what, Ayrab Jarab? I heard about the riots on BBC a few days ago. I didn't think it was important enough to blog about it - there are riots in Algeria too. Tunisia has become significant because it's rare for an Arab dictator to resign without killing hundreds, sometimes thousands of innocent people. Somebody on fb said this morning that it could turn into another Hama. I doubt it.
It's good what's happening in Tunisia. Hopefully the Sharia idiots (the mujrimeen) don't take over.
Cool. Goes to show even strongmen dictators with police states can be ousted. Arab unemployment is twice the global average. There's a lot of anger there. And it's only a matter of time before someone besides Amreeka gets some blame.
The odds are that in the end the Tunisians will get a new and worse dictator.
It takes more than a revolution to reduce unemployment. It takes years, or decades, of honest efficient government. And especially a healthy environment for small businesses.
"The odds are that in the end the Tunisians will get a new and worse dictator."
Or a group of dictators...like the Taliban and the Khomeinists.
"It is most noteworthy and most significant (given the Western media obsession with the Islam factor in all what Arabs and Muslims do politically), that the Islamic factor is thus far absent in what is going on in Tunisia. In fact, secular trends and movements seem to be at the helm. The revolutionary Tunisian Communist Workers Party is one of the leaders of this movement. I am not saying that Islamic trends will not later emerge in the Tunisian political spectrum especially that Bin `Ali was repressive in what was allowed politically, but it is high time that Arab political culture not be reduced to the Islam factor. Today, Islamist Tunisian thinker, Rashid Ghannushi, announced that he would return to Tunisia. But he has no role in what is happening and no one is chanting his name--his withes to the contrary notwithstanding." --As'ad Abu Khalil
Given the Western media obsession with the Islam factor? It is significant without Western media "obsession" with the Islam factor. As'ad is obsessed with Western media's perception of Islam and the Arabs.
"The revolutionary Tunisian Communist Workers Party is one of the leaders of this movement."
I don't see how this can be a good thing...when has communism NOT produced a society that is a repressive, genocidal failure?
Communism in Arab countries is not like Soviet Communism, where Soviets were not allowed to inherit money. Arab communism is more like socialism where everybody gets free education, healthcare, subsidized transportation, maybe subsidized utilities and petroleum if the country is oil-rich. Abdul Karim Qasim, although accused of resembling a dictator, was very popular among Iraqis and so were his policies. He was praised for nationalizing most Iraqi oil fields. That's why the US & Britain were against him, and so they allied with Baathists, who ended up killing Qasim and thousands of Iraqi communists, many of them intellectuals who merely wanted a more egalitarian society. I saw a video a while back about the "Kings of Iraq" on YouTube. It mentioned that Qasim gave women many rights that conservative Baathists did not approve of.
dear Ayrab Jayrab, & Mojo,
"Let's hope this revolution continues to the other..."
Oh,that one bright moment when we were all" neo-cons".
bushtheliberator
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