Senior Tunisian officials are to meet the UK’s Foreign Office minister, Tobias Ellwood, in London on Monday to try to convince the government to drop its advice to Britons not to travel to the north African nation in the aftermath of last month’s shootings.
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Essid threatened unspecified repercussions in response, but earlier this month the British ambassador to Tunisia, Hamish Cowell, said Britain wanted to review the advisory “as soon as possible”.
The Tunisian economy has been hit hard as several governments, including Britain, warned their nationals against visiting the country.
Prime Minister Habib Essid said that his visit, Monday to Brussels, has two aspects, namely, discussing fight against terrorism and economic co-operation. One of the agreements reached includes raising quotas on how much olive oil the county can sell in European markets.
“We have an extremely constructive relationship with the Tunisians”.
The Tunisian premier said he was thankful for European Union support but noted that after the euphoria of the 2011 popular uprising, people were now demanding jobs which the authorities had so far been unable to produce.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the Sousse attack.
Thirty Britons and eight others were killed in the attack when gunman Seffedine Rezgui opened fire on holiday-makers.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, right, welcomes…
“If these mad terrorists want to harm the tourist sector, it is because they do not love Tunisia”, he said.
Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, who met the Tunisian officials, intends to question the Home Secretary, Theresa May, on the process by which the travel warning was issued and consider how a failing economy would create a recruiting pool for Islamist extremists.
“Tunisia does not deserve to be sanctioned”.
He also outlined the help being provided by the United Kingdom to Tunisia, including technical assistance to the country’s security services and the use of British “sophisticated assets” to gather intelligence for the ongoing investigation into the attack.
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Maintaining the warning would cause “the biggest economic and social crisis…It would plunge Tunisia into instability and unemployment which will contribute to radical Islamism”, she said.
