Sunday, February 12, 2006
US seeks stronger military ties with North African states
* Rumsfeld praises Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco as ‘constructive partners’ in war on terror
TUNIS: The United States wants to strengthen military ties with Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Saturday at the start of a North African tour.
“We are continuing to participate with these three countries one way or another on military-to-military relations and that is something we value and want to strengthen,” he told reporters on the flight here from the Italian island of Sicily.
Rumsfeld praised the three countries as “constructive partners” in the war on terrorism.
“We’ve got a multi-faceted relationship with these three countries,” he said. Counter-terrorism issues “will certainly be part of the discussion but we’ve worked with each of these countries on a variety of things.”
Tunisia is the first country on a tour that will also take Rumsfeld to neighboring Algeria and Morocco. Rumsfeld said that terrorist networks are attracted to “areas that have large ungoverned spaces where governments are attitudinally more tolerant towards extremism and that would not be the case in any one of these three countries.”
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http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\02\12\story_12-2-2006_pg4_7