Libya slams Tunis, Israel ties

Libya slams Tunis, Israel ties

TUNIS (Reuter): Libya said yesterday it was surprised by
Tunisia's decision to establish ties with Israel, describing the
move by its North African neighbor as contradictory to the will
of the Arab people.

"This decision is contrary to (Libya's) position of
principle...which rejects normalization policies with the Israeli
enemy in all its forms," the official Libyan news agency JANA
said in a commentary.

Flanked by Israeli Foreign Minister Ehud Barak and Tunisian
Foreign Minister Habib Ben Yahia, U.S. Secretary of State Warren
Christopher announced in Washington on Monday that Tunisia and
Israel would establish diplomatic interests sections in each
other's countries by April 15.

Christopher said the move was "an important step to widen the
circle of peace" in the Middle East.

"This decision is a surprise to us," JANA, received in Tunis,
said. "This decision reflects disdain for Arab and Islamic
values."

Tunis-based diplomats said the Libyan comment was likely to
increase strain in the already fragile ties between the two
countries.

They recalled that Tripoli in November brought home its envoy
in Mauritania in a protest against Nouakchott's decision to
establish similar ties with Israel.

Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, saying he was expressing the
position of the Arab people by opposing the Middle East peace
process, had been pressing neighboring Tunisia since 1994 not to
establish ties with Israel, they said.

Last year, Tunisia turned down a request to that effect from
Qaddafi. It told his envoy it was a sovereign state and rejected
any interference in its foreign policy.

Christopher said on Monday he and Ben Yahia had discussed
threats against Tunisia. "I told him the United States would take
such threats very seriously," he said, without revealing who had
made the threats.

Ben Yahia said in Washington that the decision was an
upgrading of the level of relations with Israel as a result of
progress made in the Middle East peace process.

Tunisia and Israel in 1994 agreed to establish "liaison
channels", a lower form of diplomatic contact than a "liaison
bureau" or an "interests section".

But the decision was not implemented, Tunisia insisting it
would only do so when progress was made in talks between Israel
and the Palestinians over implementing their 1993 peace deal.

Diplomats said that Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben
Ali, at an unexpected meeting earlier this month with Qaddafi in
southern Tunisia, tried to mollify Libya's opposition to his
country's ties with Israel, without apparent success.