TUNIS: Algeria’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is among Arab leaders and senior officials invited to Tunis to celebrate the one-year anniversary Saturday of Tunisia’s revolution, a government source said.
The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, and a senior Moroccan official have also been asked to take part in events to mark the day that president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was ousted, the source said Thursday.
Tunisia’s new authorities have yet to release any details of the official celebrations being organized to mark the beginning of the "Arab Spring" revolutions which also toppled long-standing rulers in Egypt and Libya.
Ben Ali has been convicted of economic and other crimes by Tunisian courts and lives in exile in Saudi Arabia.
In the central town of Sidi Bouzid, thousands of Tunisians turned out on December 17 to mark the day a year earlier when Mohamed Bouazizi, 26, a street vendor, torched himself in the protest act that sparked the revolution.
