Tunisia's Foreign Ministry summoned the US charge d'affaires on Friday after Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised concerns about the country's democracy.

The ministry said in a statement that it had called Natasha Franceschi, currently the top official at the US embassy, to its headquarters over recent remarks by Blinken and American ambassadorial nominee Joey Hood.

Tunisia's Foreign Minister Othman Jerandi told Franceschi that the statement represented an unacceptable "interference in the national internal affairs," the ministry said.

He also expressed "amazement" at the US officials' criticism, which he said did not "at all reflect the reality of the situation in Tunisia."

A few hours before summoning Franceschi, the foreign minister had met with President Kais Saied, who expressed his "rejection of any form of interference in the internal affairs of the country."

What did the US officials say?

"Tunisia has experienced an alarming erosion of democratic norms over the past year and reversed many of the Tunisian people's hard-won gains since 2011," Blinken had said, referring to the 2011 revolution that introduced democracy.

"An inclusive and transparent reform process is crucial to restore the confidence of the millions of Tunisians who either did not participate in the recent referendum or opposed the new constitution," Blinken said on Twitter. 

Hood told the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee in a hearing on Wednesday that Tunisia had recently "experienced an alarming erosion of democratic norms and fundamental freedoms."

The US officials were criticizing the referendum on a new constitution, which was approved Monday by nearly 95% of voters, albeit with a turnout of just 30.5%. 

The new constitution grants almost unlimited power to the president. 

The US government has become critical of Saied, who dissolved parliament on July 25 last year. He also seized control of the judiciary and electoral commission, saying the country was ungovernable. 

tg/sri   (AFP, Reuters)