Summary:

On 3 September 2023, the Saudi Arabian Foreign Ministry reported that Tunisian Foreign Minister Nabil Ammar was in Riyadh for official meetings.

FM Ammar met with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan for official discussions and then the two co-chaired an official follow-up committee meeting between the two countries.

FM Ammar’s time in Riyadh also included engagements with the Saudi Assistant Minister of State for African Countries Affairs and the Kingdom’s Ambassador to Tunisia.

In mid-July 2023, Saudi Arabia announced plans to provide $500 million in financial aid to Tunisia.

Outlook:  

While no official reports noted the topic of normalization with Israel as being on the agenda in Riyadh, the timing of FM Ammar’s trip comes as the issue of normalization is garnering significant attention and discussion across the Arab world.

Algeria made public possible efforts by the Gulf states to encourage Tunisia to normalize, prompting assurances that no such effort would be undertaken. Those events coincided with the public revelation of a meeting between the Israeli and Libyan minsters of foreign affairs, prompting the Libyan Foreign Minister to flee the country in the wake of subsequent violent backlash.

It remains to be seen if Saudi Arabia and the UAE will continue to push for Tunisia’s normalization with Israel and to what extend this effort would be tied to past or future promises of financial assistance.

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