The head of American diplomacy urged the Tunisian authorities to reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that Tunisia “risks collapse” without an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Blinken was speaking during his hearing before the US Senate Foreign Affairs Committee in Washington, reports the Middle East Monitor.
“The most important thing they can do in economic matters is to reach an agreement with the IMF,” insisted the head of American diplomacy in response to a question on Tunisia.
“We strongly encourage them to do so because there is the risk of the economy collapsing,” he added.
As a reminder, the head of diplomacy of the European Union, Josep Borrell, had alerted, at the end of a meeting of EU foreign ministers, held on Monday 20 March in Brussels, that “The situation in Tunisia is very dangerous”.
“If Tunisia collapses, this risks causing migratory flows towards the EU and causing instability in the Middle East and North Africa region. We want to avoid this situation,” he insisted.
Tunis dismissed Borrell’s comments, calling them “selective” and “disproportionate”.
Tunisia is experiencing a serious economic crisis, exacerbated by the repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic, and the high cost of importing energy and raw materials, following the Russian-Ukrainian crisis.
Tunisia’s sovereign rating has been downgraded to “high risk” by the rating agency Moody’s, which refers to a “risk of debt default”.
Tunis has been negotiating for several months with the IMF to obtain a loan of 1.9 billion dollars. However, discussions between the two parties have stalled since an agreement in principle announced in mid-October.
