{"id":40402,"date":"2019-08-07T21:23:01","date_gmt":"2019-08-07T21:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=40402"},"modified":"2019-08-07T21:23:01","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T21:23:01","slug":"court-documents-accuse-qatar-owned-doha-bank-of-money-transfer-to-syrian-extremists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=40402","title":{"rendered":"Court documents accuse Qatar-owned Doha Bank of money transfer to Syrian extremists\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nTUNIS:\u00a0Tunisian Defense Minister Abdelkarim Zbidi submitted his candidacy for a presidential election on Sept. 15 as an independent on Wednesday and said he would resign from government.<\/p>\n

\nZbidi, 69, who has the support of secular parties including Nidaa Tounes and Afek Tounes, is likely to emerge as one of the frontrunners in the election, which was called early after the death of President Beji Caid Essebsi last month.<\/p>\n

\nZbidi, a technocrat and medical doctor by training, is considered by many to be above the party politics and infighting that has held back badly-needed economic reforms in Tunisia in recent years.<\/p>\n

\nHe looks set as the most serious rival to Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, who will run as a candidate for the liberal Tahya Tounes Party.<\/p>\n

\nAfter Ben Ali\u2019s overthrow in 2011, Zbidi was appointed defense minister until he quit in March 2013 while serving in a Cabinet led by Ennahda. In 2017, Chahed re-appointed Zbidi as defense minister.<\/p>\n

\nTunisia\u2019s president controls foreign and defense policy, governing alongside a prime minister chosen by Parliament who has authority over domestic affairs.<\/p>\n

\nTunisia\u2019s biggest political party Ennahda Movement nominated its vice President Abdel Fattah Mourou as a candidate on Wednesday. He is the first presidential nominee from the moderate party since Tunisia transitioned to democracy after the 2011 uprising.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe party\u2019s advisory council has voted by a majority of 98 votes in favor of Abdel Fattah Mourou\u2019s candidacy at the presidential election,\u201d Ennahda said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\nMourou, 71, was appointed interim parliamentary speaker following the death of President Essebsi.<\/p>\n

\nThe Ennahda politician had previously served as the deputy speaker, and changed roles after the then parliamentary head Mohamed Ennaceur stepped up as interim president.<\/p>\n

\nThe party\u2019s announcement marks \u201cthe first time in its history that the movement puts forward a candidate for the presidential elections,\u201d spokesman Imed Khmiri said.<\/p>\n

\nEnnahda won the first polls after the 2011 uprising which ousted President Zine El-Abidine, and is currently the largest party in Parliament.<\/p>\n

\nMourou is known as a moderate and is one of the founding members of Ennahda, which was launched in 1981.<\/p>\n

\nPresidential hopefuls have until Aug. 9 to register, ahead of the election on Sept. 15.<\/p>\n

\nSo far 27 people have submitted their candidacy to the electoral commission, including media magnate Nabil Karoui.<\/p>\n

\nHe was charged with money laundering in July, after stating his intention to stand in the polls.<\/p>\n

\nKaroui is a fierce rival of Prime Minister Chahed, who is standing in the presidential vote with his Tahia Tounes party.<\/p>\n

\nThey have been joined in the race by Abir Moussi, who heads a group formed from the remnants of Ben Ali\u2019s ruling party.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TUNIS:\u00a0Tunisian Defense Minister Abdelkarim Zbidi submitted his candidacy for a presidential election on Sept. 15 as an independent on Wednesday and said he would resign from government. Zbidi, 69, who has the support of secular parties including Nidaa Tounes and Afek Tounes, is likely to emerge as one of the frontrunners in the election, which…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":40403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}