"The most critical thing they can do on the economic side is actually get an IMF agreement," Blinken said in response to a question at a Senate hearing.

"We would strongly encourage them to do that because the economy risks falling off the deep end," he said.

Tunisia has been struggling under mounting debt and rising prices worsened by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It reached an agreement in principle in mid-October for a nearly $2 billion package from the International Monetary Fund.