Activity: Other › Types of Public engagement and outreach - Media article or participation
Description
Andreas Krieg, a researcher at King's College London and an expert on the Gulf states, will also see at least the handprint of the United Arab Emirates in the events in Tunisia. "The United Arab Emirates has undoubtedly sought to manipulate events in Tunisia," Krieg commented on Suomen Kuvalehti by telephone. According to him, the dynamics are largely the same as what we have seen before in Egypt and Libya.
The Tunisians have real reasons to complain, but the UAE has sought to channel the people’s anger from the political elite in general towards the Muslim Brotherhood and the Ennahda party. Efforts have been made to reinforce this discourse from the United Arab Emirates, but within Tunisia, the same has been done by Emirates-funded journalists and politicians.
Abu Dhabi funds numerous politicians from secularized parties in Tunisia. Krieg also estimates that Ennahda's connections to the ideology of the supranational Muslim Brotherhood are in fact very loose.