Iran is “severely wrong” in supporting the regime of Assad, said Marzouki, adding that Tunisians “hope that Bashar Assad will leave.”
“All Arab tyrants will be removed and instead civil states will be established,” he said during a conference in London, where he was awarded the annual Chatham House prizetogether with Sheikh Rached Ghannouchi for the successful compromises they achieved during Tunisia’s transition.
Marzouki also said Tunisia supported Iran’s right to “have knowledge” but stressed: “we are fully against nuclear arms.”
The interim president, who was elected last year in December to run the country until the general election, said he hoped that a new constitution would be finished in January or February and that the elections would happen “before the summer,” noting that the Tunisian prime minister had said they would take place in June.
Tunisia’s transition is “still fragile and needs support,” said Marzouki, listing the main priorities for the country as tackling youth unemployment, creating jobs, making the country attractive for investors, boosting credit and strengthening the rule of law. The country has already made some reforms, such as reinforcing freedom of the press and fostering the civil society, he said.
“Tunisia will provide conditions for safe and sound economic pillars, to attract foreign direct investment,” Marzouki said.
Ghannouchi, head of the Ennahda movement, said that despite the fact that some had expected partnership links with Europe and the West in general to be “destroyed” by the arrival of an Islamist-led government, they had actually seen “an unprecedented positive development.”
He said the government coalition included moderate islamists and moderate secularists and that “the second republic must be born out of consensus rather than the civil strife which accompanied the birth of the first republic, which set the ground for half a century of dictatorship.”