Opposition Tunisian party deplores Peres's visit
A Tunisian opposition party denounced the visit expected to be carried out by the Israeli deputy prime minister Shimon Peres to Tunisia to take part within an Israeli delegation for the second world information summit which Tunisia will host on the mid of December.
The progressive democratic party described Peres as a "war criminal" whose hands are stuffed with the bloods of the Palestinian and the Lebanese, especially following the Qana massacre in which more than 100 Lebanese were killed.
The party stressed in a statement attachments to the rights of the Tunisian and Palestinian "martyrs" who were killed in the raid of Hammam al-Shat in Tunisia which Peres had ordered when he was a prime minister in Israel, and was carried out by his army chief of staff Ehud Barak, personally.
The party also renewed its rejection for the participation of any Israeli delegation in Tunis's summit, whatsoever the pretexts, because this contradicts with Tunisia's national obligations, expressing simultaneously support for what he described the political, trade unions and people moves which reject the visit of the Israeli delegation.
However, Israel had recently announced that its foreign minister Silvan Shalom will preside over its delegation to Tunisia's summit, which is expected to be attended by 50 heads of states and prime ministers and some 18,000 scientific and official figures. Shalom is expected to visit Morocco before his arrival in Tunisia.
Worthy mentioning that the Israeli prime minister was expected to lead the Israeli delegation to Tunis, but he abrogated his visit in response to an advice from the Israeli Mossad.
The Tunisian authorities deny to have invited Sharon to take part in the world summit for the Information society that have any links to normalizing relations. It has repeatedly stressed that extending this invitation came within an international framework of its obligation as a host of the summit, and this obligation ends with the end of the conference.
Worthy mentioning that Tunis does have diplomatic relations with Israel, but in 1996 they had exchanged two offices for supervising interest and each of them appointed "a permanent representative in this office." The two representation offices were closed in October 2000 at Tunisia's initiative in protest of the Israeli oppression against the Palestinian Intifada.