Carthage — At the end of the second round of consultations over the initiative of Interim Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali to form an apolitical cabinet of technocrats, Ennahdha party chief Rached Ghannouchi stressed on Monday the need to "form a cabinet combining technocrats and politicians who would not run for the coming elections".

Ennahdha party "did not turn down the initiative of Jebali but agreed to modify it" Ghannouchi said, adding that all participants in the meeting of consultations had expressed commitment to keeping Hamadi Jebali as Prime Minister.

As regards the neutrality of sovereign ministries, he affirmed that "the debate remains open" and his party is not against that "provided that the next government sets to work".

Member of the Congress for the Republic (CPR) party politburo Aziz Krichène spoke for his part of consensus on a cabinet made up of technocrats and politicians, saying that "the initiative of Jebali, as it was suggested, would not have been approved by the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) unlike the modified version which will be approved."

General Co-ordinator of the Democratic Alliance Mohamed Hamdi stressed in turn that "today's meeting has put an end to Jebali's initiative" speaking as well of "other initiatives to form the next cabinet ."

Spokesman for "Al Massar" Samir Bettaib affirmed that Jebali's initiative had failed, deploring the fact that with this failure "Tunisia has missed a precious opportunity to get out of its crisis with the least damage."