French language Tunisian media is reporting that Tunisian Muslim Brotherhood leader Rachid Ghannouchi met last week in Tunisia with two EU officials. According to the translated Realites report, the meeting revolved around the current situation in Libya:
TRANSLATED April 30, 2015 The leader of the Ennahda Movement Rached Ghannouchi received last April 29, 2015 at party headquarters, the European Commissioner for Regional Policy Johannes Hahn and Ambassador of the European Union in Tunisia Laura Baeza. The Libyan political crisis and the latest UN initiative for dialogue in order to find a solution have been at the heart of this meeting, a statement published on the official website of Ennahda. The European Commissioner praised the success of Tunisia its democratic transition he described as peaceful and stable, the statement said.
According to the website of the European commission, Johannes Hahn is an actually an Austrian politician who is the Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy & Enlargement Negotiations, an office charged with “Deepening relations with neighbours of the EU to the south and east, in the EU’s interest and in the interests of our partners.” He previously served as European Commissioner for Regional Policy in the second Barroso Commission, succeeding Benita Ferrero-Waldner as Austria’s EU representative.
Rachid Ghannouchi (many spelling variations) is the head of the Tunisian Ennahda Party, essentially the Muslim Brotherhood in Tunisia. Mr. Ghannouchi has been a member of the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR) and is currently and Assistant Secretary-General of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), both organizations led by Global Muslim Brotherhood Youssef Qaradawi. In 2009, an Egyptian news report referred to Ghannouchi as a leader of the MB “abroad.” Ghannouchi is also one of the founding members of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), a Saudi organization closely linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and dedicated to the propagation of “Wahabist” Islam throughout the world. Ghannouchi is known for his thinking on the issue of Islam and citizenship rights. In January 2011, Ghannouchi returned to Tunisia after a long exile in the U.K and two weeks after the Tunisian leader Zine El Abidine Ben was forced from power in the events which triggered the “Arab Spring.”
For a history of Mr. Ghannouchi’s extremism, go here.