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US Sends Senior Envoy to Tunisia

   David Gollust | State Department  24 January 2011
   US  Assistant  Secretary  of  State  for  Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey
   Feltman (file photo)

Photo: AP

   US  Assistant  Secretary  of  State  for  Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey
   Feltman (file photo)

   The  Obama  administration  has  sent  a  senior  envoy  to Tunisia to
   underscore   U.S.   support  for  efforts  there  to  transition  from
   authoritarian  rule  to  democracy.  The  United  States  is  offering
   Tunisian authorities help in organizing promised elections.
   The  dispatch  to  Tunisia  of  Assistant  Secretary of State for Near
   Eastern  Affairs Jeffrey Feltman underscores U.S. interest in seeing a
   peaceful  and  democratic outcome to the political upheaval there that
   ousted President Zine Abidine Ben Ali.
   Weeks  of street protests and rioting drove Mr. Ben Ali, who had ruled
   the country for 22 years, into exile on January 14.
   Unrest has continued with protestors demanding that holdovers from the
   previous    government   be   purged   from   the   new   transitional
   administration.
   Announcing  the  Feltman mission several hours after his departure for
   Tunis,  State  Department  Spokesman  P. J. Crowley said the assistant
   secretary will seek a "first hand view" of the situation and sound out
   the  new authorities on how the United States can assist in building a
   stable democracy.
   "We  support  the  transition  that is underway, and we hope that this