Tunisian President Kais Saied fires Foreign Minister

Tunisian President Kais Saied has fired his Foreign Minister Othman Jerandi.

The president appointed Nabil Ammar, Tunisia’s ambassador to the European Union, to replace Mr Jerandi. He did not give a reason for Mr Jerandi’s dismissal.

A career diplomat, Mr Jerandi became foreign minister under Mr Saied in September 2020.

He becomes the fourth minister to lose his position this year, with the trade, agriculture and education ministers having already been replaced.

President Saied carried out a series of measures in 2021 to enhance the power of the presidency at the expense of parliament and the judiciary.

Opposition parties boycotted the 2022 parliamentary elections, accusing the president of staging a coup after shutting parliament in 2021 and giving himself almost unlimited executive powers.

Just about 11% of Tunisians turned out for a second round of parliamentary voting last month.

There has been a deepening political and economic crisis, amid protests by Tunisians increasingly frustrated with the state of the economy and against Mr Saied’s seizure of near total power.

BBC