Diplomatic Briefing
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Newsline: Syria expels ambassadors of Tunisia, Libya
Syria’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said Saturday that Damascus has given the ambassadors of Libya and Tunisia 72 hours to leave Syria. The Syrian embassy in Qatar was also closed, and Syrian ambassadors to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have also been called back, Syria’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said. The expulsion of diplomatic missions of Libya and Tunisia came apparently in retaliation to similar actions taken against Syrian diplomats in those countries. Tunisia was the first Arab country to announce the decision to expel Syria’s ambassador and to cut relations with the Syrian government. Libyan Foreign Ministry on Thursday announced its decision to expel Syria’s charge d’affaires and his staff, adding that it expects all Syrian diplomats to leave the country within the next 72 hours. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have also decided to withdraw their ambassadors in Syria, and in the meantime demand Syrian ambassadors in the Gulf countries to leave, according to a GCC statement issued earlier this month.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2012-02/12/content_14584998.htm
Newsline: French embassy attacker sentenced to death in Mali
A 24-year-old Tunisian was sentenced to death inMalion Tuesday for an attack on the French embassy in Bamako in January, his lawyer said. “My client, who was tried on Monday for terrorism and escaping from prison, was sentenced to death” by a court in Bamako, Bachir Simoun’s lawyer Waly Diawara told AFP. Simoun, armed with a hand gun, an explosive device and a grenade, attacked the embassy on January 5. A Malian later died of injuries sustained in the attack. Simoun escaped from prison in February while awaiting trial, but was arrested in Gao in the north of Mali two days later. Simoun had claimed membership of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, but had acted alone, according to investigators. While capital punishment can still be imposed by Malian courts, it has not been carried out for years.
Newsline: Israeli diplomat praises Egypt, Tunisia for uprisings
An Israeli government diplomat said that Tunisia, Egypt and Libya are clearly fed-up with dictatorship. Ishmail Khaldi, the Israeli government’s Arab Bedouin Foreign Service member, is currently in South Africa. Khaldi praised Egyptians and Tunisians for democratically overthrowing dictatorships in their countries and said it is a clear sign they were fed up and took decisive steps towards change. Khaldi was reluctant to comment on the situation in Libya, but did say like the rest of world Israel is monitoring events there.
Newsline: French minister quits over Tunisia ties
The French foreign minister Michele Alliot-Marie has resigned amid claims that she accepted flights and hospitality from an ally of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali just before he was overthrown. She has insisted that she had broken no laws. Calls for her head grew steadily louder after her clumsy handling of the crisis in Tunisia, including taking a holiday there as protests raged and accepting plane rides from an associate of the now-ousted president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. Alliot-Marie, in the job only since November, presented her resignation to Sarkozy in a hand-delivered letter which alleged there was a political and media campaign against her. President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose poor ratings have been dragged lower by a storm of criticism of Alliot-Marie, said uprisings sweeping through North African states meant a new approach was needed to help them achieve democracy. Veteran politician Alain Juppe has been appointed France’s foreign minister. Juppe will be given the job of restoring France’s diplomatic credibility and ensuring it takes the right approach to the pro-democracy movement, especially in former colonies where the French elite has had close ties with authoritarian rulers. Alliot-Marie’s fall from grace came as a surprise after a steady Sarkozy came under attack earlier this month for the way his government has run foreign policy. Critics accused him of riding roughshod over foreign service chiefs and keeping key decisions in the hands of advisers.
Newsline: French envoy to Tunisia says “stupid” for rudeness
France’s ambassador to Tunisia apologised on Saturday for being abrupt with journalists at a recent press conference, after thousands of protesters gathered outside the embassy calling for him to quit over the incident. “I say I am sorry, I regret my words, I was stupid,” Ambassador Boris Boillon said over state television. “I ask for the forgiveness of all Tunisians.” Boillon, who arrived in Tunisia last week after a popular uprising forced President Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali to step down in January, was dismissive of reporters’ questions during a recent introductory press event. At one point he pushed a reporter’s microphone away while berating her, and then stormed off. Video of the incident was widely diffused on the Internet, leading activists to protest outside the French embassy on Saturday, shouting slogans like “Boris, Boris, quit” and “No to colonialism”. Tunisians are deeply suspicious of former colonial ruler France’s role in supporting Ben Ali, who ran the North African country repressively for more than 20 years.
http://af.reuters.com/article/tunisiaNews/idAFLDE71I0KQ20110219
Newsline: Demonstrators in Tunisia urge recall of new French ambassador for ‘insulting behaviour’
Several hundred people have gathered outside the French embassy to urge the recall of France’s new ambassador to Tunisia. The protesters are denouncing what they called Boris Boillon’s “insulting behaviour” at his introductory press conference, though it is not clear what exactly he said or did. Boillon arrived in Tunis last week to replace the previous French ambassador, Pierre Menat — recalled to Paris during the uprising that toppled Tunisia’s longtime leader last month. Menat had been in the post for just over a year. Boillon, a 41-year-old Arabic speaker, was once an adviser to conservative French President Nicolas Sarkozy and was previously posted in Iraq. Saturday’s protesters brandished signs reading “Tunisia: respect it or leave it.”
Newlsine: Tunisian foreign minister resigns as country faces migrant exodus
As Tunisia marks Monday a month since the ousting of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the interim government battled European pressure to curb an exodus of migrants and a key minister quit. Ahmed Ounaies resigned Sunday in a blow to the new authority a day before a visit by European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to focus on democratic reforms since the removal of the strongman leader in a popular uprising. The interim government meanwhile rushed security forces to coastal areas to stop a Europe-bound exodus of people fleeing poverty, a government source said, with thousands of immigrants flooding to Italy in recent days. Immigration will likely be a top issue in talks Monday between Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi and Ashton, after Italy appealed for urgent EU aid to halt a wave of North African immigrants. Some 5,000 undocumented migrants, many of them Tunisians, have arrived to the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa over the last five days alone. Tunisian authorities have also arrested between 1,000 and 1,500 would-be immigrants in recent days. The immigrants said they were fleeing poverty and continued unrest in the North African state following the uprising that ousted Ben Ali on January 14 after 23 years in power. But Tunisian officials slammed a suggestion by Rome that Italian police could be sent to the country to stem the flow of illegals. Ounaies’ resignation was another blow to the interim government. The 75-year-old retired diplomat, who joined its reshuffled forces less than three weeks ago, had hailed his French counterpart Michele Alliot-Marie as “above all a friend of Tunisia” during a visit to Paris this month. His remarks came as Alliot-Marie faced calls to resign after admitting that she used a private plane owned by a Tunisian businessman with alleged ties to the Ben Ali regime. Three days after the Paris visit, Ounaies was heckled by staff at the foreign ministry who demonstrated for his immediate departure. In response, he took his personal belongings and left.
Newsline: France replaces Tunisia envoy
France replaced its ambassador to Tunisia with a close ally of President Nicolas Sarkozy, days after Sarkozy admitted his government had misjudged the situation in its former colony. Government spokesman Francois Baroin said Pierre Menat would be replaced by Arabist Boris Boillon, the current ambassador to Iraq, who previously worked for two years as a diplomatic adviser to Sarkozy on the Middle East and North Africa. Boillon, at 41 France’s youngest ambassador, had “the natural sensitivity to handle the new era in Franco-Tunisian relations”, Baroin said. In a speech to journalists and diplomats on Monday, Sarkozy conceded that his government had underestimated the gravity of the popular uprising that toppled Tunisian president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, a long-time ally of France. Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie has rejected the idea that France was too detached from the situation on the ground, saying that Ben Ali’s overthrow on Jan. 14 took even his own ministers by surprise.
http://af.reuters.com/article/tunisiaNews/idAFLDE70P1TM20110126
US embassy cables: Ambivalence on Tunisia
Cables from American diplomats in Tunisia portray a deepening ambivalence toward the rule of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, expressing alarm about popular resentment of the blatant corruption of the country’s first family but also gratitude for Mr. Ben Ali’s cooperation against terrorism and the stability he long imposed. Those cables, from the cache obtained by the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks and made public in recent weeks, helped fuel the anger on the streets that culminated Friday with Mr. Ben Ali’s flight after 23 years in power. Posted on a site created last month called TuniLeaks, the diplomats’ disgusted and lurid accounts of the kleptocratic ways of the president’s extended family helped tip the scales, according to many Tunisian commentators. ”What’s Yours Is Mine” was the wry title of a June 2008 cable reporting the brazen habits of the president’s clan. ”Corruption in Tunisia is getting worse,” the cable said. “Whether it’s cash, services, land, property, or yes, even your yacht, President Ben Ali’s family is rumored to covet it and reportedly gets what it wants,” the cable said, reporting that two nephews of Mr. Ben Ali’s had seized the yacht of a French businessman in 2006. While the cable recounted routine demands for bribes by low-ranking government workers (the cost of a traffic stop, one Tunisian said, was up from 20 dinars to 40 or 50, or about $28 to $34), it said the flagrant thievery at the highest levels was most worrisome. ”Although the petty corruption rankles, it is the excesses of President Ben Ali’s family that inspire outrage among Tunisians,” the cable said. “With Tunisians facing rising inflation and high unemployment, the conspicuous displays of wealth and persistent rumors of corruption have added fuel to the fire.” Some cables report how the “quasi mafia” of the country’s ruling family muscled its way into the management of Tunisia’s most profitable bank and how Mr. Ben Ali demanded a 50 percent share of a private university. Others, however, make it clear just how much United States officials, preoccupied with the threat of terrorism in many other Muslim countries, valued Mr. Ben Ali’s cooperation and ability to maintain order.
Newsline: Explosives found at Bern’s Tunisian embassy
The Tunisian Embassy in Bern was the target of an attack in the early hours of the morning. Bern cantonal police say several fire bombs were thrown but failed to ignite. No one was hurt. A criminal investigation has been opened and police are appealing for witnesses. It comes at a time of political unrest in Tunisia. Riots have killed over 50 people there in recent days. Last Friday activists from the movement Solidarity took over the Tunisian consulate in Lausanne.
http://worldradio.ch/wrs/news/wrsnews/explosives-found-at-berns-tunisian-embassy.shtml?22622
