TUNISIA URGED TO VOTE AGAINST ANTI-ISRAEL

C O N F I D E N T I A L TUNIS 000844 SIPDIS STATE FOR IO/UNP (MORRISON),NEA/IPA, AND NEA/MAG E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/18/2019 TAGS: PREL UNGA KPAL TS SUBJECT: TUNISIA URGED TO VOTE AGAINST ANTI-ISRAEL RESOLUTIONS REF: A. STATE 118788 ¶B. TUNIS 830 Classified By: Ambassador Gordon Gray for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (SBU) Embassy requested the Government of Tunisia vote against or abstain from voting on anti-Israel resolutions in the UNGA and cease lending support to the three resolutions extending the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable rights of the Palestinian People, the Division for Palestinian Rights, and the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories. The request was delivered via diplomatic note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on November 18, but did not elicit any substantive response. ¶2. (C) Comment and recommendation: Current press coverage devoted to the Israeli announcement it is constructing 900 new housing units in East Jerusalem is going to complicate efforts to win Tunisian support. Tunisia is likely to follow the Arab League consensus on these votes. We understand a senior Department official may soon call Secretary of State Chtioui to lobby for positive Tunisian action on the Iran vote in the Third Committee (ref B); if so, the Embassy recommends that the senior Department official make these points as well. End comment and recommendation. GRAY