POSITIVE SIGNALS FROM THE GOT REPRESENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L TUNIS 000085

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/FO, NEA/MAG, S/CT, AND S/GWI
OSD-ISA FOR ASD VERSHBOW AND DASD HUDDLESTON
AFRICOM FOR AMBASSADOR HOLMES AND MG SHERLOCK
NSC STAFF FOR SENIOR DIRECTOR RAMAMURTHY AND NORTH AFRICA
DIRECTOR AGUIRRE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/02/2020
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM PTER SENV KWMN TS
SUBJECT: POSITIVE SIGNALS FROM THE GOT REPRESENT
OPPORTUNITY FOR THE U.S.

REF: A. TUNIS 81

B. TUNIS 69

C. TUNIS 61

D. TUNIS 36

E. TUNIS 34

F. TUNIS 26

Classified by Ambassador Gordon Gray for reasons 1.4 (b) and
(d).

--------------
Summary
--------------


1. (C) In the past six weeks, the Tunisian government has
been signalling, with some consistency, that it would like to
warm and energize its relationship with the U.S. A series of
USG visitors, including, most recently, NEA DASes Sanderson
and Wittes, Deputy AFRICOM Commander Holmes, and CODEL Lynch,
have been received cordially, and at high levels, by Tunisian
officials. A mid-January cabinet shuffle replaced a cool
francophone Foreign Minister with a gregarious
American-educated one. In a January 26 meeting, a senior MFA
official explicitly told DAS Sanderson that Tunisia wants to
"turn the page" and "do a lot of work together" (septel).


2. (C) Summary continued: The Embassy recommends the USG
take advantage of this apparent opening, which can help us
advance our agenda on human rights, contribute to improved
relations with the Tunisian public, boost economic and
commercial ties, and solidify cooperation on regional
security and counterterrorism. Specifically, we should look
at sending more high-level visitors, launching a human rights
dialogue, and ensuring a successful annual meeting of the
Joint Military Commission in Washington in April. End
summary.

--------------
Recommendations
--------------


3. (C) We believe that the GOT is sending us a concerted
signal that it wants to improve relations with the U.S.
After a distinctly chilly period, particularly in the past
eighteen months, the Embassy strongly believes the USG should
seize this opportunity to advance U.S. objectives, both
bilateral and regional. Specifically we should:

-- Launch a bilateral human rights dialogue (already
successfully previewed to senior GOT officials by DASes
Wittes (ref C) and Sanderson). We propose Assistant
Secretary Posner convoke Tunisian Ambassador Mansour to
stress USG interest in formalizing this process. This
meeting could be a prelude to a high level DRL visit to
Tunis, which would impress the Tunisians with our commitment
to a principled and results-oriented dialogue. The late
January visit by a UN Special Rapporteur on human rights (ref
B),and the unprecedented access he received, is an
encouraging sign;

-- Hold the annual Joint Military Commission meeting in
Washington, as planned, in April and make it a counterpart
visit, making a strong impression on Tunisia's new Defense
Minister early in his tenure; And

-- Send more high-level Washington visitors to Tunis in the
coming months.

- The Tunisians tell us they are looking forward to Science
Envoy Zerhouni's visit, which we expect will advance our
science and technology cooperation, in keeping with the Cairo
and Marrakech agenda.

-- Our GOT interlocutors tell us they would be delighted to
welcome Assistant Secretary Feltman, (who kindly followed our
recommendation to avoid a stop in Tunis in the period
surrounding the October 25 elections).

Other visitors who we believe could now make a particular
impact would include:

-- S/CT Ambassador Benjamin, who could help reinforce our
message to the Tunisians that the U.S. wants better channels

of communication and stronger and more consistent
counterterrorism cooperaion; And

-- S/GWI, Ambassador Melanne Verveer, with whom the GOT would
be pleased to discuss Tunisia's strong record on women's
rights, and who would be well placed to argue to the GOT that
it should move to translate its relatively progressive social
policies into better human rights practices across the board.


--------------
Relations on the Upswing
--------------


4. (C) A series of USG visitors in January and early February
were cordially received, and heard a generally upbeat
message, from Senior Tunisian officials. DAS Wittes met the
Minister of Communications, the Minister of Higher Education,
and the number two at the Foreign Ministry, and AFRICOM
Deputy Commander Ambassador Holmes was received by the new
Defense Minister, barely a week after his appointment in a
cabinet shuffle. That shuffle also put in place Kamel
Morjane, a friendly, U.S.-educated former UN official as the
new Foreign Minister, replacing the icy francophone
Abdelwahab Abdallah. In a January 26 meeting, Saida Chtoui,
de facto Deputy Foreign Minister, told visiting DAS Sanderson
that her new Minister was "very open" and stressed that
Tunisia was eager to "turn the page" with the U.S (septel).
Chtoui predicted "positive changes" in the relationship in
the coming months, and made clear the GOT would like to see
more high-level visits to Tunisia. CODEL Lynch, making a
brief stop in Tunisia on return from a visit to Afghanistan,
was also warmly received by Chtoui on February 1.



5. (C) Positive atmospheric improvements are also extending
to our economic, commercial, and cultural cooperation. On
the cultural front, GOT Ministers told DAS Wittes they would
resolve a longstanding blockage in our Fulbright educational
exchange program. The Ministers of Commerce and Development
and International Cooperation each received DAS Sanderson on
January 26 and underscored their interest in relaunching
Trade and Investment Framework Agreement talks and in
completing an Open Skies Agreement. Also in January, after
more than a year of repeated requests, the Tunisians also
finally agreed in principle to allow the U.S. Coast Guard to
conduct several port security assessments later this spring,
a key certification needed to maintain uninterrupted
commercial shipments from Tunisia to the U.S.


6. (SBU) Following a first-ever franchising exhibition in
December, in which U.S. participants were eagerly welcomed
and courted, the GOT sent us in late January, in record time,
names of participants in a USG-funded export promotion visit
to the U.S. We are also anticipating good access and
cooperation from the GOT during the February 15 visit of a
number of U.S. companies, on the margins of a USDOC Trade
Mission to Algeria and Libya.


7. (C) In an ongoing series of courtesy calls, the Ambassador
has been received warmly by members of President Ben Ali's
cabinet, many of whom express enthusiasm for increased
practical engagement. GOT officials are enthusiastic about
beefing up science and technology cooperation and have said
they will welcome the planned March visit of Science Envoy
Dr. Elias Zerhouni. The Minister of Environment, for
example, told the Ambassador on January 26 (septel) he would
like his experts to work with the U.S. EPA and planned to
invite the Administrator to visit Tunisia.


8. (C) The past six weeks have also seen noticeable
atmospheric improvements to our bilateral military
relationship. The Tunisian military has recently become
noticeably more responsive to routine requests for
information. They participated in a January exchange of
military intelligence analysts, and were uncharacteristically
flexible to a U.S. proposal to amend the date of the
bilateral annual planning conference. Tunisia's Director of
Military Intelligence also recently expressed to SDO/DATT his
enthusiasm for attending the U.S.-organized DMI conference to
be held in April in Nigeria, and senior Tunisian military
officers have also recently become more receptive to
invitations to U.S.-organized representational events.


--------------
...But More Improvement is Needed
--------------


9. (C) Most of the developments cited above remain
atmospheric rather than substantive improvements. With few
exceptions, Embassy officers still need to file diplomatic
notes to get access to GOT interlocutors, and the Embassy has
a long list of pending meeting requests that have gone
unanswered, for months in many cases. The GOT's ambivalence
to invitations to attend U.S.-organized mulitilateral events,
such as the February 2-4 UNSCR 1540 biosafety workshop, seems
in tact, although we were pleasantly surprised at the GOT's
decision to send delegates to a U.S.-led cybercrime workshop
in Malta February 9. As discussed ref D, while the January
cabinet shuffle put in place a Foreign Minister clearly more
open to engagement with the U.S. and the west, the same
shuffle left the hard line Interior Minister in his seat, and
other hard liners remain in key positions of influence,
suggesting that domestic repression and human rights abuses
will continue. Nonetheless we believe we have an opportunity
to move the relationship forward.

GRAY