Cablegate: Tfle01: Lebanese Parliament Leader Hariri Visits

VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTU #1943 2131342
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 011342Z AUG 06
FM AMEMBASSY TUNIS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1429
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS TUNIS 001943

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/MAG (HARRIS)

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL KPAO TS
SUBJECT: TFLE01: LEBANESE PARLIAMENT LEADER HARIRI VISITS
TUNISIA

REF: A. TUNIS 1939

B. TUNIS 1924

Tunisian newspapers carried July 29 a report of the July 28
visit to Tunis of Lebanese parliamentary majority leader Saad
Hariri to meet with Tunisian President Ben Ali. According to
AFP press reports, the Tunis stop was part of a tour,
including Algeria and Morocco, to mobilize support for
Lebanon during the current crisis. According to the official
GOT press release, Hariri asked Ben Ali's support for a
cease-fire and thanked the Tunisian President for his
"positions of support for Lebanon, as well as his call for
Lebanese sovereignty throughout the entirety of the Lebanese
territory." Hariri reportedly further thanked Ben Ali for
Tunisia's humanitarian aid to Lebanon, and asked that the
President "take advantage of all of Tunisia's international
contacts to bring necessary pressure on Israel to stop its
savage aggression against Lebanon." In his statement
following his meeting with Ben Ali, Hariri said that Israeli
aggression was an attempt to demoralize and divide the
Lebanese people, but defended the will and unity of his
fellow citizens.
BALLARD

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