Shalom, in Tunis, pushes for resumed diplomatic relations

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom used his address to a UN technology summit in Tunis yesterday to urge Tunisia to resume diplomatic ties with Israel.

Shalom, who is originally from Tunisia, spoke in Tunisian-accented Arabic in honor of his host country.

Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali hosted all the heads of state attending the World Summit on the Information Society for dinner last night, and Shalom was also invited, even though he is not a head of state. In addition, Shalom will meet with several Tunisian ministers tomorrow. Nevertheless, government sources said they do not believe that Tunisia, which severed ties with Israel following the outbreak of the intifada in September 2000, is likely to resume diplomatic relations anytime soon.

Shalom also met yesterday with President Ely Ould Mohamed Vall of Mauritania, one of the four Muslim countries with which Israel has full diplomatic relations. Vall stressed that he is committed to maintaining and even strengthening these ties. This was his first meeting with a senior Israeli official, as he came to power in a nonviolent coup in August.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas also attended the Shalom-Vall meeting, and Israel requested his aid in forging ties with other Arab and Muslim countries.

Abbas used his speech at the summit to urge Israel to halt the operations of Israeli cell phone companies in Palestinian territory, which he termed an "invasion." He also charged that Israel's control of radio frequencies, as well as the fact that Israel serves as the PA's communications gateway to the rest of the world, has prevented the Palestinian communications industry from developing.

"We have no direct phone lines," he said. "We have no international dialing code and no control [over] our radio frequencies."

Abbas also urged Israel to begin negotiations on a final-status agreement. He praised the agreement reached on Tuesday over the operation of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, but stressed that he hoped it would lead to agreements on other issues.

Abbas and Shalom also held two bilateral meetings yesterday, constituting the highest-level Israeli-Palestinian contacts in the past several months. The first meeting between the two was by chance. "It was an unscheduled meeting," an Israeli official said. "They met by accident."

Nevertheless, Abbas referred to it as "a good meeting" during a subsequent news conference. "We discussed the agreement reached [Tuesday]," he said. "We discussed the continuation of such meetings. I reminded him that this [the Rafah deal] was the first agreement signed in five years, and that now we should really close that gap and not only implement what has been signed but sign new agreements."

The second meeting, held later in the day, was planned. Foreign Ministry officials declined to say what was discussed at this meeting, but said that Shalom and Abbas spoke for a few minutes and held a "friendly" conversation.

Communications Minister Dalia Itzik, who also attended the summit, was able to chat with her Iraqi counterpart, Jwan Fouad Maasoum, since the delegations were arranged in alphabetic order, which meant that the Israelis and Iraqis were sitting side by side. The two discused the potential for Israeli-Iraqi cooperation in developing a fiber optic link between Europe and the Middle East. Israel already has a fiber optic link to Europe, so Iraq could theoretically hook into the Israeli network via Jordan, and the Gulf States could then link up via Iraq.

Today, Shalom and his mother, who is accompanying him, plan to visit their former Tunisian hometown. That trip was originally supposed to happen earlier this week, but was postponed because Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi was there.

	An Internet summit visitor passing the Israeli exhibition pavillion at the congress center in Kram, Tunisia, yesterday.
	Photo by: AP