AFP Asia Business

Tunisian city on general strike over factory pollution

Workers in the southern Tunisian city of Gabes launched a general strike on Tuesday following weeks of protest over a chemical factory residents blame for a spike in serious health issues.Thousands have recently rallied in the city of some 400,000 inhabitants to demand the closure of a state-run phosphate processing plant which they say is behind a rise in gas poisonings after it ramped up production.The plant, inaugurated in 1972, processes phosphate to make fertilisers, and some of the gases and waste it discharges into the open air and Mediterranean are radioactive and can cause cancer, researchers have found.”Everything is closed in Gabes,” said Saoussen Nouisser, a local representative of Tunisia’s main labour union, UGTT, which called the general strike. “We’re all angry at the catastrophic environmental situation in our marginalised city,” she told AFP.Thousands marched in the city centre in the afternoon, calling for the factory’s closure. “Health is a right, breathing is a right,” protesters chanted. “Living without pollution is a right.”Activist Noureddine Boukhris said the protesters would ramp up their campaign after the general strike.   “We want the state, the prime minister’s office and the ministers involved in this matter to react by dismantling the plant,” he said.- ‘Urgent measures’ -Over 200 people have been hospitalised in recent weeks for respiratory distress and gas poisoning, according to authorities and NGOs.Videos circulated online of children seemingly having breathing issues last week pushed thousands to rally in the coastal city.Police have used tear gas to disperse the crowd at some demonstrations, with the city seeing clashes between residents and security forces sometimes at night.Dozens were arrested over the weekend.National Guard spokesman Houcem Eddine Jebabli told local media that protesters have used “over 800 Molotov cocktails” targeting security forces, adding there were cases of “robbery and looting”.In 2017, the Tunisian government promised to gradually shut down the factory, but earlier this year authorities said they would instead ramp up production at the plant.President Kais Saied had long vowed to revive the sector hindered by unrest and underinvestment, calling phosphate a “pillar of the national economy”.Authorities have said “urgent measures” were underway to address pollution in Gabes as the government called on Chinese companies to help manage the plant’s waste.Equipment Minister Salah Zouari said they would help “control gas emissions” and “prevent the discharge of phosphogypsum into the sea”.The solid waste contains radioactive elements, which also impact soil quality and groundwater.Taking advantage of rising world fertiliser prices, the government now wants the plant’s output to nearly quintuple by 2030, from less than three million tonnes a year to 14 million tonnes.

Erdogan heads to Doha eyeing Qatari Eurofighter jets

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was due in Doha late Tuesday as Ankara sought to acquire some of Qatar’s used Eurofighter Typhoon jets, a Turkish security source told AFP.Erdogan flew in from Kuwait and was expected to meet Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Wednesday, according to the Turkish leader’s office.”Turkey has been trying to negotiate to acquire some of Qatar’s used Eurofighters,” the source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to journalists.”In exchange, Turkey has offered access to its new-generation fighter jet, the Kaan, as part of a potential technology transfer arrangement.”So far “no concrete progress” had been made with the negotiations still ongoing, the source said.Turkey wants to modernise its air force and has in recent years sought to buy 40 new Eurofighter Typhoons built by a four-nation consortium of Germany, Britain, Spain and Italy.The move came after Washington booted Ankara out of its F-35 fighter programme in 2019 over Turkey’s purchase of an S-400 Russian surface-to-air missile defence system.The purchase had raised fears it would give NATO’s main adversary a window into Western jet operations.-‘Strategic bluff’-Some defence observers see Turkey’s push to acquire the Eurofighters as a strategic bluff aimed at putting pressure on Washington to readmit Ankara to its fighter jet programme.”For Turkey, the main priority remains the F-16 and F-35 programmes,” the Turkish source said.In May, Erdogan expressed confidence that the sanctions would quickly be ended, and his meeting last month with US President Donald Trump further cemented those hopes.Washington’s Turkey Ambassador Tom Barrack said in June that US sanctions were likely to be over by the year’s end.But the Turkish source said it was likely to take a bit longer.”Due to the current political gridlock in the US Congress, progress on these deals is unlikely before the new year.”In 2017, Qatar placed an order for 24 Eurofighter jets, and in December, Doha reportedly said it was looking to acquire another 12 more, according to several defence news outlets.Ankara’s request might receive a lukewarm reception, according to the Turkish source, in light of Qatar’s own defence requirements following Israeli strikes on Hamas figures in the emirate last month.