Hard-won Tunisia dialogue to end crisis finally begins

Tunisia's divided factions began hard-won negotiations Friday to end a protracted political crisis after Islamist premier Ali Larayedh managed to avert an opposition boycott by making a written pledge to resign. The repeatedly delayed national dialogue aims to break months of deadlock between the Islamist-led government and the mainly secular opposition that has paralysed Tunisia's political transition nearly three years after the January 2011 uprising.
"Today is an important date in the history of Tunisia. The whole world is watching and waiting for us to succeed," the powerful UGTT trade union, which brokered the talks, said on its Facebook page. "We have registered our first success with the official launch of the national dialogue," its chief Houcine Abassi was quoted as saying at the start of the closed-door negotiations. "We will work together to implement the roadmap according to the envisaged timeframe and agree on the constitution, and I hope we will get there quickly," he added.
Amid growing doubts that the opposition would attend a new attempt to launch the negotiations on Friday, Larayedh sent a written commitment to mediators that his government would resign. The pledge drew a positive reaction from opposition members, and the dialogue began at around 1600 GMT at the human rights ministry, following a delay of several hours.
"We are committed to all chapters of the roadmap and our MPs will return to the National Constituent Assembly as soon as the dialogue has started," said Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, a prominent figure in the opposition Republican Party. Previous efforts to launch the talks on October 5 and 23 failed, most recently when the opposition rejected a statement by Larayedh as "ambiguous," prompting the Ennahda party prime minister to issue a clarification.
"Last night (Thursday) on television, Tunisia's prime minister reiterated his government's pledge to step down according to the quartet roadmap, following the implementation of the preceding milestones in the roadmap," Ennahda said. The opposition had refused to join the talks until Larayedh gave a "clear and explicit" undertaking that his government would step down within three weeks of the dialogue's launch. The three week timeframe was stipulated in the roadmap brokered by the UGTT and three other mediators between the government and the opposition, at the end of which a caretaker cabinet of technocrats is to be appointed.