Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune's hopes of resolving what he called the 'divergences and disagreements' at the Arab summit in Algiers on1-2 November were disappointed but he secured a strong turn out of North African presidents including Egypt's Abdel Fattah el Sisi and Tunisia's Kaïs Saïed...

Tunisia's opposition leaders have been encouraged by a ruling by the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights the African Union's top court which stated that President Kaïs Saïed's presidential decrees were illegal and should be immediately nullified...

Having won a referendum albeit on a low turnout of 30% for his constitutional reform proposals President Kaïs Saïed is now planning to consolidate his grip on power in legislative elections due on 17 December...

But demonstrations have not gained enough momentum or size to threaten the President (Dispatches 1/2/22 Islamist chief warns of social explosion after Kaïs Saïed's 'coup')...

Last month Morocco recalled its ambassador from Tunisia after President Kaïs Saïed invited Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic president Brahim Ghali to an Africa-Japan summit (Dispatches 30/8/22 Tokyo promises $30bn to Africa a week after Beijing's debt relief offer)...

Given the sensitivity of the matter it seems certain that decision to invite the Polisario's Ghali was made by Tunisia's authoritarian President Kaïs Saïed...

So far Kaïs Saïed's year of entrenching power in the presidency and the whittling away of the rights of parliament and other centres of oversight and scrutiny has been unhindered at home and abroad – save for an increasing number of street demonstrations...

The political stand-off in Tunisia intensified on 1 April after the anti-terrorism police summoned Islamist leader Rachid Ghannouchi who was accused by President Kaïs Saïed of conspiring against state security...