The pan-Arab newspaper Rai al-Youm has shed some light on a meeting that did not take place this month between leader of Hamas abroad Khaled Mashaal and Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah. According to a report published Monday, it is believed that the hostility of Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime to certain Hamas leaders torpedoed the planned meeting.

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Mashaal visited Lebanon this month after an explosion at a Hamas weapons warehouse in a Palestinian refugee camp near Tyre. The blast killed Hamas' chief engineer and during his funeral, Hamas and Fatah members from the camp shot at each other. Three Hamas members were killed by the gunfire.

The newspaper reported that the prevailing belief for the reason the Mashaal-Nasrallah meeting did not take place was that the Hamas delegation in Beirut was unable to consult with or meet with any of the official Hezbollah leadership. However, the two organizations are still in contact, particularly on military matters.

However, the newspaper report also said that the leaders of Hamas in Lebanon felt that there was hostility toward Mashaal in Hezbollah, and that Hezbollah had been in a dispute with Mashaal and his people ever since Mashaal left his stronghold in Damascus for Qatar during the events of the Arab Spring in 2011. The anger toward Mashaal stems from his refusing Syrian President Bashar Assad's request that he respond to a fatwa from Sheikh Yusef Al-Qaradawi, former spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, who declared jihad in Syria during the Syrian war.

Either way, the report said that Hezbollah's conduct was a reflection of the stance of the Assad regime. The newspaper stressed that although Hamas wanted to organize a meeting in hope of overcoming the disagreements and even turning over a new leaf, Hezbollah not only forwent the sit-down, but also made it clear that it wasn't interested. Nevertheless, Hamas took the risk of visiting Lebanon.

According to the report, Sheikh Mohammad Ramadan (who according to reports in Lebanon is actually Mohammed Azazi, a senior official in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and responsible for the IRGC security coordination in Lebanon) informed the Hamas delegation, which included Khalil al-Haya, that "Circumstances were not appropriate to welcome Mashaal." He suggested that Mashaal not come and his visit be postponed.

Rai Al-Youm also reported that hours before the Hamas delegation departed from Istanbul for Beirut, the Iranians sent a message to Hamas politburo head Ismail Haniyeh, in which they told Haniyeh that the planned visit was unwelcome and should be cancelled.

Therefore, the newspaper claimed, Haniyeh consulted Mashaal and the two eventually decided that Mashaal would visit Beirut and ask to meet with senior members of the Palestinian groups in Lebanon.

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Nurse Amina Ben Hammou beamed with pride when President Kais Saied named Najla Bouden Romdhane as Tunisia's first woman prime minister on Wednesday.

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"I am optimistic about a woman being prime minister, so let's try it," she said.

"And I imagine, according to my opinion, that a woman will make Tunisia succeed because women are serious, combative, and patient, and these three things are very important."

Saied asked Bouden, a little-known professor of geophysics who implemented World Bank projects at the education ministry, to form a government quickly amid a political crisis following his near-total seizure of power.

Last week, Saied suspended most of the constitution, saying he could rule by decree during an "exceptional" period with no set ending, calling into question democratic gains after Tunisia's Arab Spring uprising in 2011.

Elected in 2019, Saied has been under domestic and international pressure to name a government after he dismissed the prime minister, suspended parliament, and assumed executive authority in July in moves his foes call a coup.

However, Bouden's appointment marks a social advance in the Muslim country, which has some of the most progressive laws governing women's rights in North Africa and the Middle East.

Religion-based personal status laws govern marriage, child custody, divorce, and inheritance although activists say Tunisia still discriminates in men's favor when it comes to inheritance rights.

Saied asked Bouden to propose a cabinet in the coming hours or days "because we have lost a lot of time.".

His closest adviser is also a woman - presidency office director Nadia Akacha. She had been tipped as one of the likely candidates for prime minister before he tapped Bouden.

Women have only rarely held senior political roles in Arab countries. Yet Saied's actions raise questions over whether Bouden will be given the tools to govern in a nation facing a crisis in public finances after years of economic stagnation were aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic and political infighting.

The new government urgently needs financial support for the budget and debt repayments after Saied's changes put talks with the International Monetary Fund on hold.

Bouden's appointment lifted some spirits, despite the limitations she will face.

"We were waiting for this moment, and I imagine that any woman, not only in Tunisia, but in the world, and any woman in the free world, is waiting at a moment like this that a woman is appointed to this position," said teacher Mouna Ben Sad.

'I just hope that she will do a good job and I hope that she will carry out a good program."

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The mistakes the US has made in Afghanistan and Iraq are neither original nor unusual. They characterize three generations of Middle East policy under more than a dozen Washington administrations. Only a few US leaders have maximized its potential to influence. Its enemies learned how to exploit these problems. Its friends only occasionally managed to help it shake off its expectations. Israel is especially frustrated by the US tendency to err in its understanding of the region and manage it according to a policy that goes against regional and global needs.

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For the most part, people in Washington still haven't learned to draw conclusions from the successes of wise American policy (mostly in the glory days of Nixon and Kissinger) and from its more damaging failures (mostly under Eisenhower, Carter, Bush Jr., and Obama). The source of most of these failures lies in the ongoing, determined denial of the deep-seated gap between the different motivations and priorities that repeatedly dictate the political behavior of people in the region and the ridiculous American expectations. Especially serious is the American difficulty in understanding the phenomenon of radicalism in generation and its Arab and Islamist forms in particular.

There is a common, deeply-held belief in the US that humans, for the most part, aside from cultural differences, aspire to "the good life" and interpret this concept in the western sense: well-being, political freedom, and personal safety that give the individual an opportunity to improve his standing and achievements. They apply this modern and pluralistic outlook to tribal, violent societies, as well, and assume – explicitly or implicitly – that they perpetuate their patriarchal, authoritarian, and belligerent structures simply because they have not been given a fair chance for "the good life" because of foreign occupiers or corrupts rulers.

From here, it's a short leap to assuming that American involvement in democratizing regimes, lifting foreign rules, market economies, and individual initiative will allow third-world societies to throw off external obstacles that are preventing them from living the good life and make them allies that espouse western democratic values. The observation that the centrist stream in most of these societies clings to a culture that holds it back and causes it poverty and suffering is denigrated as racist. The public's fervent support for radical leaders operating without this cultural framework is presented as "irrational" and something that can be changed.

This American worldview is dissonant with reality. It sees as "impossible" that Iraqi society would reject democracy, that the Palestinians would reject a historic compromise, that Muslim women would support a way of life that oppresses them, that countries rich in natural resources suffer from hunger. "It cannot be" that Arab immigrants bring their failing culture that wrecked their lives in the first place with them to Europe. It's "irrational" that the recent generations of people born in the region support en mass destructive, oppressive, and often corrupt types like Nasser, Saddam Hussein, Arafat, Gaddafi, Erdogan, and the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, who are consistently responsible for their failures and distress. It's "unreasonable" that the popular uprisings of the Arab Spring that successfully ousted oppressive and violent rulers ended in civil wars, destruction, and more extensive suffering and destruction than what they sought to prevent.

From the "progressives" to the neo-conservatives, the Americans err in deluding themselves. From Eisenhower, who allowed Nasser's missionary leadership in 1956 and Kennedy who tried to placate him; to Carter who tried to placate Assad and Arafat and was stopped by Sadat; and Bush Jr., who tried to bring democracy to Iraq; and Obama, who strengthened Iranian radicalism and the Palestinian lawlessness. They all denied the fact that the region's tribal, pre-modern society does not see the "good life" as democracy, compromise, peace, pluralism, equal rights for women, and individual welfare and liberty, but as a massive step back to the past and compensation for the hurt feelings that developed during the failed attempts to confront the modern world.

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Workers dig and ferry wheelbarrows laden with sand to open a new shaft at a bustling archaeological site outside of Cairo, while a handful of Egyptian archaeologists supervise from garden chairs. The dig is at the foot of the Step Pyramid of Djoser, arguably the world's oldest pyramid, and is one of many recent excavations that are yielding troves of ancient artifacts from the country's largest archaeological site.

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As some European countries re-open to international tourists, Egypt has already been trying for months to attract them to its archaeological sites and museums. Officials are betting that the new ancient discoveries will set it apart on the mid- and post-pandemic tourism market. They need visitors to come back in force to inject cash into the tourism industry, a pillar of the economy.

But like countries elsewhere, Egypt continues to battle the coronavirus, and is struggling to get its people vaccinated. The country has, up until now, received only 5 million vaccines for its population of 100 million people, according to its Health Ministry. In early May, the government announced that 1 million people had been vaccinated, though that number is believed to be higher now.

In the meantime, authorities have kept the publicity machine running, focused on the new discoveries.

In November, archaeologists announced the discovery of at least 100 ancient coffins dating back to the Pharaonic Late Period and Greco-Ptolemaic era, along with 40 gilded statues found 2,500 years after they were first buried. That came a month after the discovery of 57 other coffins at the same site, the necropolis of Saqqara that includes the step pyramid.

"Saqqara is a treasure," said Tourism and Antiquities Minister Khaled el-Anany while announcing the November discovery, estimating that only 1% of what the site contains has been unearthed so far.

"Our problem now is that we don't know how we can possibly wow the world after this," he said.

If they don't, it certainly won't be for lack of trying.

In April, Zahi Hawass, Egypt's best-known archaeologist, announced the discovery of a 3,000-year-old lost city in southern Luxor, complete with mud brick houses, artifacts and tools from pharaonic times. It dates back to Amenhotep III of the 18th dynasty, whose reign (1390–1353 BCE) is considered a golden era for ancient Egypt.

That discovery was followed by a made-for-TV parade celebrating the transport of 22 of the country's prized royal mummies from central Cairo to their new resting place in a massive facility farther south in the capital, the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization.

The Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh is now home to an archaeological museum, as is Cairo's International Airport, both opened in recent months. And officials have also said they still plan to open the massive new Grand Egyptian Museum next to the Giza Pyramids by January, after years of delays. Entrance fees for archeological sites have been lowered, as has the cost of tourist visas.

The government has for years played up its ancient history as a selling point, as part of a years-long effort to revive the country's battered tourism industry. It was badly hit during and after the popular uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak and the ensuring unrest. The coronavirus dealt it a similar blow, just as it was getting back on its feet.

In 2019, foreign tourism's revenue stood at $13 billion. Egypt received some 13.1 million foreign tourists – reaching pre-2011 levels for the first time. But in 2020, it greeted only 3.5 million foreign tourists, according to el-Anany.

At the newly opened National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, Mahmoud el-Rays, a tour guide, was leading a small group of European tourists at the hall housing the royal mummies.

"2019 was a fantastic year," he said. "But corona reversed everything. It is a massive blow."

Tourism traffic strengthened in the first months of 2021, el-Anany told The Associated Press in a recent interview, though he did not give specific figures. He was optimistic that more would continue to come year-round.

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"Egypt is a perfect destination for post-COVID in that our tourism is really an open-air tourism," he said.

But it remains to be seen if the country truly has the virus under control. It has recorded a total of 14,950 deaths from the virus and is still seeing more than a thousand new cases daily. Like other countries, the real numbers are believed to be much higher. In Egypt, though, authorities have arrested doctors and silenced critics who questioned the government's response, so there are fears that information on the true cost of the virus may have been suppressed from the beginning.

Egypt also had a trying experience early on in the pandemic, when it saw a coronavirus outbreak on one of its Nile River cruise boats. It first closed its borders completely until the summer of 2020, but later welcomed tourists back, first to Red-Sea resort towns and now to the heart of the country  – Cairo and the Nile River Valley that hosts most of its famous archaeological sites. Visitors still require a negative COVID-19 test result to enter the country.

In a further cause for optimism, Russia said in April that it plans to resume direct flights to Egypt's Red Sea resort towns. Moscow stopped the flights after the local Islamic State affiliate bombed a Russian airliner over the Sinai Peninsula in October 2015, killing all on board.

Amanda, a 36-year-old engineer from Austria, returned to Egypt in May. It was her second visit in four years. She visited the Egyptian Museum, the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization and Islamic Cairo, in the capital's historic center.

She had planned to come last year, but the pandemic interfered.

"Once they opened, I came," she said. "It was my dream to see the Pyramids again."

El-Rays says that while he's seeing tourists starting to come in larger numbers, he knows a full recovery will not happen overnight.

"It will take some time to return to before corona," he said.

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Jordan's foreign minister tried on Sunday to shed some light on the circumstances surrounding the nighttime arrests of certain senior officials following a failed coup attempt. But his comments created the impression that the main grounds for the drama were, at the most, conversations and plans that might have been cooked up secretly, rather than concrete actions. No tanks were rolling toward the royal palace in Amman, and King Abdullah's throne was never in any real danger.

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We can assume that if the king had had any real evidence that his half-brother Prince Hamzah was planning to overthrow him, he would have put him in prison rather than under house arrest, and possibly could have denied shutting him in the palace, if it hadn't been for a leaked video that Hamzah managed to smuggle out.

Over 50 years ago, Professor Manfred Halpern, one of the most important Middle East researchers of all time, predicted that the fate of the kings in the region had been clinched, and they would disappear within a few years. Of course, he was wrong. The Arab Spring, which deposed long-reigning tyrants like Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, miraculously skipped over the monarchies and left all the kings on their thrones, from the king of Morocco in the west to the king of Saudi Arabia and the Emirate princes in the east.

But that same Arab Spring, or winter, left the surviving kings more worried and anxious about their reign than ever. They commanded their intelligence services to keep an eye open for any suspicious chatter or undesirable gatherings.

At least some of them are convinced that the main danger to their rule comes not from their militaries and security apparatuses, but closer to home. A year ago, Mohammad bin Salman, son of King Salman of Saudi Arabia, ordered the arrests of three members of the royal family, including two high-ranking princes, on charges of attempting a coup. On Saturday, King Abdullah took exactly the same action when he ordered Hamzah to be placed under house arrest.

The kings' fear of being betrayed by members of their own extended families overlaps with their natural desire for their sons, rather than other family members, to inherit their crowns. There are plenty of examples. Less than four years ago, King Salman ousted his nephew, Mohammed bin Naif, to name his son, Mohammad bin Salman, heir to the throne. Jordan's former King Hussein, on his deathbed, passed over his brother Hassan to name his own son Abdullah his heir.

And following the tradition of giving his son preference over other relatives, King Abdullah II took care to ensure that not Hamzah but his own eldest son Hussein would become king. Only last month, Hussein tried to anchor his status by sparking a spat with Israel about the number of security guards who would accompany him on a visit to the Temple Mount.

As of Sunday afternoon, it still is not clear how far Hamzah was prepared to go, aside from his confession in the leaked video that he had not been part of any coup attempt and had only voiced criticism about years of corruption in the upper echelon of the kingdom.

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But the king's hasty response and the nighttime arrests show how enormously sensitive the Jordanian royal family is about any attempt to topple the king. There a few reasons for this: first, the difficult situation in Jordan, which is battling COVID and an economic crisis and is having difficulty coping with a huge deficit and high unemployment. The economy received a bit of relief from the US Congress' decision to cancel former President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw foreign aid to Jordan.

Another reason has to do with the fact that Hamzah, 41, is well-educated and has an impressive military record as a commander in the country's armored forces, and is more popular and charismatic than Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah. Hamzah also enjoys the support of a few of the tribal leaders in Jordan, who are the mainstay of kingdom's ruling elite. During the wave of demonstrations that erupted across Jordan some three years ago over the economic crisis, Hamzah's name was raised as someone more worthy than Hussein to succeed Abdullah.

In deciding to clip Hamzah's wings and remove any threat, real or imagined, to his rule, King Abdullah had the full support of the United States, the west, and most countries in the Arab world. The calming messages Amman sent Jerusalem about the stability of the kingdom's government show that despite the diplomatic tension between the two countries, the king places great importance on backing from Israel.

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The Tourism and Antiquities Ministry said in a statement that archaeologists found the collection of colorful, sealed sarcophagi buried more than 2,500 years ago at the Saqqara necropolis.

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Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said more than 80 coffins were found.

Archaeologists also found colorful, gilded wooden statues, the ministry said. Details of the new discovery would be announced at a news conference at the famed Step Pyramid of Djoser, it said.

Egypt has sought to publicize its archaeological finds in an effort to revive its key tourism sector, which was badly hit by the turmoil that followed the 2011 uprising. The sector was also dealt a further blow this year by the coronavirus pandemic.

Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly and Tourism and Antiquities Minister Khalid el-Anany toured the area and inspected the new discovery, which came just over two weeks after the ministry revealed 59 sealed sarcophagi, with mummies inside most of them, in the same area of Saqqara.

The Saqqara site is part of the necropolis at Egypt's ancient capital of Memphis that includes the famed Giza Pyramids, as well as smaller pyramids at Abu Sir, Dahshur and Abu Ruwaysh. The ruins of Memphis were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1970s.

The plateau hosts at least 11 pyramids, including the Step Pyramid, along with hundreds of tombs of ancient officials and other sites that range from the 1st Dynasty (2920-2770 BCE) to the Coptic period (395-642 CE).

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"I would like to express, on behalf of the Israeli people and the Israeli government, my sincere grief over the death of Hosni Mubarak," Netanyahu said in a statement. "The president was a personal friend, he was a leader who led his people to peace and security, peace with Israel. I met him many times, I was impressed by his commitment and we will continue marching along this joint path," Netanyahu said.

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Mubarak, the Egyptian leader who for nearly 30 years was the resolute face of stability in the Middle East, died on Tuesday, the country's state television said, ending his days after a swift and ignominious tumble from power in the Arab world's pro-democracy upheaval. He was 91.

Mubarak was vice president when the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty.

On behalf of the citizens and Government of Israel, I would like to express deep sorrow on the passing of President Hosni Mubarak. President Mubarak, my personal friend, was a leader who led his people to peace and security, to peace with Israel. pic.twitter.com/J6FfCp9iPG

— PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) February 25, 2020

He took over when Sadat was assassinated two years later, and despite scaling back Sadat's peace rhetoric, he adhered to the accord and often played an important role in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Throughout his rule, he was a stalwart US ally, a bulwark against Islamic militancy and guardian of Egypt's peace with Israel. But to the tens of thousands of young Egyptians who rallied for 18 days of unprecedented street protests in Cairo's central Tahrir Square and elsewhere in 2011, Mubarak was a relic, a latter-day pharaoh.

They were inspired by the Tunisian revolt, and harnessed the power of social media to muster tumultuous throngs, unleashing popular anger over the graft and brutality that shadowed his rule. In the end, with millions massed in Cairo's Tahrir Square and city centers around the country and even marching to the doorstep of Mubarak's palace, the military that long nurtured him pushed him aside on Feb. 11, 2011. The generals took power, hoping to preserve what they could of the system he headed.

Video: Reuters

Though Tunisia's president fell before him, the ouster of Mubarak was the more stunning collapse in the face of the Arab Spring shaking regimes across the Arab world.

He became the only leader so far ousted in the protest wave to be imprisoned. He was convicted along with his former security chief on June 2012 and sentenced to life in prison for failing to prevent the killing of some 900 protesters during the 18-day who rose up against his autocratic regime in 2011. Both appealed the verdict and a higher court later cleared them in 2014.

The acquittal stunned many Egyptians, thousands of whom poured into central Cairo to show their anger against the court.

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Dozens of people were arrested, including at least two journalists, according to the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights. No casualties were reported.

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El-Sissi is a former army general who's overseen an unprecedented political crackdown, silencing critics and jailing thousands.

As defense minister, he led the military's overthrow of elected but divisive Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in 2013, amid mass protests against his brief rule.

On Friday night, dozens of protesters gathered in the capital, Cairo, near Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the so-called Arab Spring uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

"This is a very important development because this was the first such protest against the rule of el-Sissi," said political scientist Mustafa Kamel El-Sayed of Cairo University. He said it "could lead to more protests in the future."

There were also small protests in other cities, including the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. The demonstrations came directly after a soccer game in Cairo between Al Ahly, Egypt's biggest team, and its archrival Zamalek.

The protesters were responding to a call by a self-exiled businessman who has claimed corruption by the military and government without providing evidence.

In viral social media videos posted over the past weeks, Muhammad Ali has alleged his contracting business witnessed the largescale misuse of public funds in the building of luxurious hotels, presidential palaces and a tomb for el-Sissi's mother, who died in 2014.

The allegations came as economic reforms and austerity have squeezed Egypt's lower and middle classes badly.

In a rambling speech on Tuesday, el-Sissi angrily dismissed the corruption allegations as "sheer lies." However, he said he would continue building new presidential residences for the good of Egypt. "I am building a new country," he said.

He portrayed Ali's videos as an attempt to weaken Egypt and undermine the public's trust in the military and warned Egyptians against protesting or repeating the 2011 uprising.

For years, Egypt has been battling a long-running Islamist insurgency in the northern Sinai Peninsula, which borders Israel, that is now led by an Islamic State group affiliate. El-Sissi's government also has the backing of the United States and other regional heavyweights like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Israel.

Human Rights Watch on Saturday urged Egyptian authorities to protect the right to peaceful protest.

"President el-Sissi's security agencies have time and again used brutal force to crush peaceful protests," said Michael Page, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at HRW. "The authorities should recognize that the world is watching and take all necessary steps to avoid a repetition of past atrocities."

Egyptian authorities did not immediately comment on the protests. El-Sissi was in New York Saturday to attend the United Nations summit meetings, the state-run MENA News Agency reported.

El-Sissi was elected president in 2014, and re-elected last year after all potentially serious challengers were either jailed or pressured to exit the race.

Changes to the country's constitution allowed el-Sissi to remain in power until 2030. The change, which was adopted earlier this year in a national referendum, also further enshrined the military's role in politics. These moves are seen by critics as another step back toward authoritarianism.

Later Saturday, the Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, said security forces had killed a suspected militant leader from the Hasm Movement. It said two police officers were also wounded in the shootout in northern Cairo's el-Mataria neighborhood.

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In a hasty ceremony hours after Essebsi died at a military hospital in Tunis, the leader of parliament took over as interim president. However, Essebsi's death while still in office could lead to new power struggles in the only country to emerge from the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings with a functioning democracy and relative stability.

The government declared seven days of mourning, as condolences poured in from several Arab countries and the United Nations, A funeral is planned for Saturday.

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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Essebsi was "a pivotal figure" in Tunisia's history who "was instrumental in successfully steering the country through its historic and peaceful transition to democracy."

"President Essebsi was a Tunisian pioneer, an Arab and African trailblazer, and a global leader," the United Nations chief said in a statement.

Heir to Tunisia's founding father, Essebsi emerged from retirement at age 88 to win office in 2014 in the wake of the country's Arab Spring revolt.

He presented his centrist Nida Tounes movement as a bulwark against rising Islamic fundamentalism and against the political chaos that rocked Tunisia after the "jasmine revolution" overthrew a longtime dictator and unleashed similar protests for democracy throughout the region.

Essebsi was seen as a unifying figure, but was ultimately unable to bring prosperity or lasting calm to a country beset by economic crises and fending off sporadic deadly terror attacks.

Under the Tunisian Constitution, parliament president Mohamed Ennaceur should serve as interim president for 45 to 90 days while a new election is organized.

In a brief speech after he took the oath of office, Ennaceur called on Tunisians "to strengthen your unity and solidarity so that the country can pursue its march toward progress."

However, questions about the legitimacy of Ennaceur assuming the presidency could arise because the Constitutional Court was supposed to confirm the office was vacant. But the court itself doesn't exist yet because lawmakers disagree over who its members should be.

Tunisia remains a haven of political openness and relative peace compared to the countries led by strongmen elsewhere in the Arab world and to the chaos reigning in neighboring Libya.

As Lebanon's prime minister and Jordan's royal court declared multiple days of mourning over Essebsi's death, Syria's government was notably silent. Demonstrations that broke out in Syria in 2011, in part inspired by Tunisia, have turned into a bloody civil war.

Most of Essebsi's political career came well before the Arab Spring uprisings, and he outlived most of his peers in Tunisia's independence generation.

In April, he announced he wouldn't run in a November election, saying a younger person should lead the country instead.

Born Nov. 29, 1926, when Tunisia was a French protectorate, Essebsi entered politics in the 1940s and trained as a lawyer in Paris. But his name is most associated with Tunisia's first president, Habib Bourguiba, who built up the country and educated its people yet brooked little opposition.

Essebsi proudly claimed to be Bourguiba's disciple, and from 1965 to 1986, he held several senior roles including defense minister, foreign minister and interior minister.

As a supporter of openness toward more political pluralism, Essebsi occasionally clashed with Bourguiba, who was known as Tunisia's "supreme fighter."

After Bourguiba was overthrown in a bloodless coup by Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in 1987, Essebsi left politics to be a lawyer and author, including writing a biography of Bourguiba. He was little heard from but never fully renounced his political ambitions.

Ben Ali's fall in the Arab Spring of 2011 led to a difficult democratic transition for Tunisians. By the time Essebsi founded his own party in 2012 — already deep into his 80s — many were ready for a familiar face.

Essebsi often claimed with pride that it was the overwhelming support of Tunisian women that propelled him to power in 2014. Women in Tunisia won relatively broad rights under Bourguiba decades ago and many feared an Islamist wave would threaten those freedoms.

However, not having a majority in parliament, Essebsi had to make an alliance with Islamist party Ennahdha, which caused discontent in his party and cost him a good part of his electorate.

Essebsi also angered many of those who labored to build Tunisia's democracy by seeking to increase presidential power, despite a landmark 2014 constitution that created a strong parliament to keep the president's authority in check.

And he remained ever loyal to his mentor, restoring Bourguiba's statue to the central Tunis avenue that bears his name.

But Tunisia has gone through nine governments since its 2011 uprising and each one has failed to resolve widespread poverty and unemployment, leading some to lose hope in the new democratic system.

Attacks by Islamic extremists, including some trained in neighboring Libya, have killed dozens and sent foreign tourists fleeing, damaging Tunisia's key tourism industry.

Threatened this year with a general strike, Essebsi acknowledged Tunisia's problems.

"A democracy cannot be built in eight years," he said in January. "Tangible results need time."

Essebsi had hoped, before leaving office, to see a law passed giving women equal inheritance rights, overturning the current system based on Islamic Shariah law that entitles daughters to only half the inheritance given to sons. But the measure was highly controversial and drew street protests by thousands of fundamentalists, who remain a potent force.

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The state TV said the 67-year-old Morsi was attending a session Monday in his trial on espionage charges when he blacked out and then died. His body was taken to a hospital, it said.

Morsi, who hailed from Egypt's largest Islamist group, the now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, was elected president in 2012 in what some considered the country's first free elections following the ouster the year before of longtime leader Hosni Mubarak as part of the Arab Spring uprising in the region.

The military ousted Morsi in 2013 after massive protests and crushed the Brotherhood in a major crackdown, arresting Morsi and many others of the group's leaders.

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