Libya's GNC President visits Tunisia

Libya's General National Congress (GNC) President Mohammed Youssef el-Megarief is paying a visit to Tunisia on Thursday at the head of a high-level delegation, the Tunisian Presidency announced in a communiqué made public on Wednesday. This is Magarief's first visit to Tunisia since his election, the communiqué added. Tunisian political observers expect that the Libyan leader's visit is aimed at enhancing security cooperation between the two countries, particularly regarding monitoring their joint borders, as the smuggling activities across the Tunisia-Libya border has been extremely intensified recently according to security reports. Trading smuggled Libyan goods was common in Tunisia since the era of ousted president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. A lot of Ben Ali relatives were accused of benefiting from this trade. However, security reports said that the amount of this trade has been multiplied after the popular uprisings that toppled Ben Ali's regime in Tunisia and Muammer Gaddafi's regime in Libya. Magarief is set to head to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey after leaving Tunisia.