Tunisia’s interim Prime Minister Ali Laaryedh and Ansar Al-Sharia Tunisia (AST)—a Salafist-jihadi group— are currently at a war of words that escalated on April 2 when Laaryedh told the British newspaper ‘The Guardian,’ that he wanted to “put an end to law violations by religious extremists.”

Like with all of his interviews with foreign media, Laarayedh’s ‘Guardian’ interview incited a verbal confrontation between him and AST. Laaryedh denied Ennahda’s connection to AST and stressed that each had different views about society, religion, citizenship, women’s rights, and elections.

Tunisia’s interim Prime Minister Ali Laaryedh and Ansar Al-Sharia Tunisia (AST)—a Salafist-jihadi group— are currently at a war of words that escalated on April 2 when Laaryedh told the British newspaper ‘The Guardian,’ that he wanted to “put an end to law violations by religious extremists.”

Like with all of his interviews with foreign media, Laarayedh’s ‘Guardian’ interview incited a verbal confrontation between him and AST. Laaryedh denied Ennahda’s connection to AST and stressed that each had different views about society, religion, citizenship, women’s rights, and elections.

“Messages to the West”

Laaryedh’s efforts to differentiate himself from the Salafists, especially the jihadi ones, and present Ennahda as moderate are merely “messages to the West,” according to AST leader Saifullah Ben Hussein, who stressed that Laaryedh’s suggesting “an inevitable confrontation with the religious extremists” on more than one occasion, was intended to “create a new scarecrow aimed at getting the support of Western regimes.”

Ben Hussein also sent messages to Laaryedh on the Internet where he warned him of “continuing to blame AST for current violence in Tunisia”, threatened to “overthrow” the government and demanded Ennahda to intervene and spare Laaryedh’s hostility towards AST. “To your sane members (Ennahda), we say hold your patient (Laaryedh) back; otherwise, we will direct our fight against him until we topple him and send him to the dustbin of history,” said Hussein.

Mutual accusations

This threat came after Laaryedh accused Ben Hussein of being behind the proliferation of arms and escalation of violence in Tunisia.

During recent months, Tunisian security forces discovered three weapon caches that belong to AST and clashed with gunmen on the borders with Algeria. In addition, Tunisian justice is pursuing Ben Hussein for his connection with the attack on the U.S. embassy in Tunis last September.

AST’s escalation is viewed by political analyst and Islamic expert Hashmi Trodi as “a continuation of the mobilization approach” of AST, whose affiliates are about 5,000 members, according to the AST leaders and specialists.

Trodi says AST is looking for an “external threat to achieve its internal unity” after being criticized by its allies in the Salafist currents. He also claims that AST started antagonizing Laaryedh in March 2012, when he was the Minister of Interior, because he said, “A radical religious current is seeking to establish an Islamic emirate in Tunisia.”

Al-Qaeda

Trodi says the rupture between Ennahda and AST started when Ayman al-Zawahiri, a Tunisian al-Qaeda leader, delivered a You Tube message to Tunisians that Trodi described as “a sweeping attack on Ennahda that landmarked Salafism in Tunisia, especially jihadi Salafism.”

A number of political analysts share Trodi’s opinion and believe that unless the government adopts a clear stance towards the Salafist currents, it may find itself forced to face AST, which it considers an arm of al-Qaeda.

Khamis Majri, a prominent leader of the Salafist movement, which antagonizes AST,  says the Salafists, particularly jihadi ones, do not intend to clash with  Laaryedh, rather it is the other way around since Laaryedh seeks to get external support “on the pretext of resisting terrorism to remove the Salafist current, the real competitor of Ennahda.”

Majri stressed that Laaryedh’s hostility towards the Salafist-jihadi current was to “appear as a statesman in order to satisfy the leftist and secular elite, an option that gives precedence to personal and party interests over the interests of religion, people and country.”

Ibrahim Attounsi, member of the AST Shura Council, viewed Ennahda as “part of the American project” and supported his opinion saying when America “failed to fight the Mujahideen face-to-face it supported the rise of political Islam in order to fight true Islam.”