The US delegation at the World Summit on the Information Society said in a statement that Tunisia, as the host, “was called upon to demonstrate that it strongly upholds and promotes the right to freedom of opinion and expression necessary to promote the building of the global information society and ensure a successful second phase of the world summit”. “We are therefore obliged to express our disappointment that the government of Tunisia did not take advantage of this important opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to freedom of expression and assembly in Tunisia,” it added. The US delegation said it hoped the successful outcome of the summit would provide Tunisian government with an “additional incentive” to “match its considerable economic and social accomplishments with comparable progress in political reform and respect for the human rights of its people”.

Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom has expressed great hope that his current visit to Tunisia to participate in the Information Technology Summit would contribute immensely in improving his country’s ties with the rest of the Arab countries.

“I hope this visit of mine, which is the first of its kind to Tunisia, would be the first major step towards the boosting of our relations with our Arab friends,” he said. He expressed great happiness in visiting Tunisia, which he described as “my country of origin.” He said what made the visit special was the fact that it was made by a direct flight from Tel Aviv to the Tunisian island of Jarba. He said he had met the Mauritanian President Colonel Ely Ould Mohammed Fal on the sidelines of the summit, which opened on Wednesday here in the Tunisian capital.

He said he had held, after the first general session discussions with President Fal on ways to boost bilateral ties between Israel and Mauritania. Relations between the two countries dated back to the time of ousted Mauritanian President, Maaouya Ould Ahmed Al Taya.

In a related development, Israeli Telecommunications Minister Dalia Etsek said she had shook hands with her Iraqi counterpart, Juan Fuad Masoum, on the sidelines of the summit.