Tunisia and Algeria today share one key objective with their European neighbours across the Mediterranean – that of preventing Libya, in the words of the Algerian prime minister Abdelmalek Sellal, from turning into “Libyanistan”. This is the first time in more than half a century that the interests of leading European countries and the US share a strategic interest in stabilising north Africa.
Tunisia remains the only Arab country which is on the path to democracy. It needs to receive, free of charge, all the military training and essential hardware its European and American friends can muster. The point is reinforced by the ISIS-led suicide attack on the border town of Ben Guerdane on 7 March. That the United States will supply a state-of-the-art electronic surveillance system for the Tunisian-Libyan frontier is welcome.
Algeria, the country’s western neighbour, has since the fall of Ben Ali in January 2011 been helping Tunisia's security forces to fight domestic terrorist groups, notably in the Châambi mountains close to their common border. The struggle is a national, regional and European one alike: were ISIS to gain a real foothold in Tunisia, the repercussions would be felt far and afar - in Algeria and, across the Mediterranean, in Italy, Spain and France.
