Will Tunisia restore diplomatic ties with Syria?
The resumption of diplomatic relations with Syria has become an urgent matter for the Tunisian government, given the large number of Tunisian fighters involved in the Syrian war.
During a parliament session Jan. 4, Tunisian Interior Minister Hadi al-Majdoub revealed the presence of a Tunisian security office in Damascus and said daily security coordination was taking place between Tunisia and Syria, even though diplomatic relations have been severed between the two countries since February 2012. The security office seems to have been operating for a while now.
The resumption of security relations between Tunis and Damascus sparked speculation about the possibility of restoring diplomatic ties; this has long been a demand of Tunisian leftist and nationalist political parties and civic organizations.
The Tunisian government refuses to disclose details of the work of its security bureau in Damascus. However, it is clear that the security work is focused on the issue of Tunisian fighters operating with jihadi groups in Syria, mainly the Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda.
Tunisia has been witnessing political controversy and a major split on how to deal with the thousands of fighters returning from hotbeds of tension in Syria, Libya and Iraq. Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi, during his new year’s speech, placed their number at 2,926. He has estimated that there are about 3,000 Tunisian fighters in Syria. This is a drop from a July 2015 UN Panel of Experts report on the use of mercenaries, which estimated that there were 4,000 Tunisian fighters in Syria and 1,000 more in other hotbeds of tension.
