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Article: Tunisia & the USA: Tunisia's President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's visit to the United States at the invitation of US President George W Bush has become a crucial watershed in the political and economic relations between America and the Arab world.(Special Report: Tunisia and the United States)
- Article from:
- The Middle East
- Article date:
- March 1, 2004
- Author:
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A PIVOTAL MEETING
DIPLOMACY
The handshake between Tunisia's President Ben Ali and US leader George Bush was pregnant with far weightier symbolism than is usually the case when two heads of state meet. Ben Ali's visit to the US, accepting Bush's invitation delivered in person by US Secretary of State Colin Powell in December 2003 in Tunis, was laden with more import than cementing the existing excellent relations between the two countries. It was the coming together of two worlds, the Western and the Arab, at a time when tensions between the two are at snapping point.
Although Ben Ali travelled to the US solely in his capacity as Head of State ...