https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2021/10/sisi-backs-emergency-measures-tunisian-president
The Tunisian President has been put on the forefront of international action in the Middle East with his recent moves. In an effort that was initially supported by the people, dictatorial President Saied dissolved parliament, launched probes of his political enemies and has assumed authoritarian power. After having shown no signs of policy reversal, there are large spread protests and revolt in the capital city of Tunis and in the rest of Tunisia. Fellow military backed President Sisi of Egypt has offered his support formally and is noted to possibly be behind the move in Tunisia in the first place as Saied met with him three months prior. My analysis of this is that Egypt is being very underplayed as a strong power in the Middle East and I feel we will see the effects of their spreading influence in the near future, making them more competitive and comparable to Turkey and Saudi Arabia. After having just signed the deals to take over much of the infrastructure and administration of war torn Libya, to then move in and propagate another authoritarian on their side shows a growing faction behind Cairo in North Africa. I also note, that the Islamic Fundamentalists that Saied opposed funneled supplies and money to the fundamentalists in Libya that Egypt initially did not support. To relate this back to international relations, I will go so far as to say that while the Middle East as a whole is clearly very multipolar, North Africa seems to be defining itself as more and more a bipolar region, a region with two powers. Those two powers are Egypt and Turkey. Egypt, in the region itself, has dominance over Tunisia and influence in Algeria, recently making a move on Libya, however on a regime that they did not initially support and Turkey did. This will make it all the more interesting to see Turkey´s response in Libya. Moreover, while the government of Tunisia is now under Egypt, the rebellion, parliamentary leaders, and the fundamentalists are all being supported heavily with resources and aid by Istanbul yet again. How the Algerian France schism plays out for either country will be notable to watch.