French assets held by Ben Ali. Alliot-Marie faced criticism and calls for her resignation in February after news broke that she flew in a private jet owned by a Tunisian businessman during the uprising. President Nicolas Sarkozy responded by telling his ministers to take their holidays in France more often saying "What was commonplace a few years back can prove shocking nowadays." On 27 February, the French foreign minister's office announced her resignation, saying that an open letter had been sent to Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, in which Alliot-Marie made clear she felt she had not done anything wrong. According to The Economist: "French police hint that more than €70m ($93m) in gold was moved to Dubai and Istanbul via French airports by Mr Ben Ali's staff during Tunisia's revolution. (French customs officials apparently reported the transfers to superiors but no action was taken.)". — Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani praised the protests by the Tunisian people "to restore their rights." He accused Western states of being "countries which are the main cause of autocracy (in Tunisia)...[but] are pretending that they are sympathising with the nation." — Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah expressed solidarity with the protesters on the grounds that "protests will push out regime that has maintained peace with Israel." — On 16 January, leader Muammar Gaddafi decried Ben Ali's removal in a speech on Libyan state television: "You have suffered a great loss. There is none better than Zine to govern Tunisia. Tunisia, a developed country that is a tourist destination, is becoming prey to hooded gangs, to thefts and fire. [The conditions in Tunisia reflect] chaos with no end in sight. I am concerned for the people of Tunisia, whose sons are dying each day. And for what? In order for someone to become president instead of Ben Ali? I do not know these new people, but we all knew Ben Ali and the transformation that was achieved in Tunisia. Why are you destroying all of that? [Do not be fooled by] WikiLeaks which publishes information written by lying ambassadors in order to create chaos." — The Foreign Ministry issued a statement expressing "solidarity" with the Tunisian people, hoping that Tunisia will attain "civil peace." — The Department of Foreign Affairs released a statement saying that the Philippines "is closely monitoring the developments in Tunisia after the formation of a transitional government", supporting the will of