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 During a brief visit to Tunis, Kerry said Tunisia and the United
States would start a strategic dialogue, usually meaning regular
high-level meetings, beginning with a trip to Washington by
Tunisia's premier.
After a crisis last year brought on by the killing of two opposition
leaders, Tunisia adopted a new constitution and the ruling Islamists
stepped aside for a caretaker administration to govern until
elections.
Kerry's visit was to highlight progress since the 2011 uprising that
brought down autocrat Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali as well as the
compromises new Tunisian leaders have made, unlike their Egyptian
and Libyan counterparts, said U.S. officials.
"I wanted to come here today to confirm on behalf of the American
people and President Obama our commitment to stand with Tunisia and
the people of Tunisia and to help move down this road to democracy,"
Kerry said after meeting Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki and
Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa.
Tunisia's new constitution and steps to full democracy have been
praised as a model in a region still widely unstable since popular
revolts in 2011 that ousted long-standing rulers in Egypt, Yemen and
Libya.
Egypt's military last year ousted its democratically elected
Islamist president after mass protests against his rule. Libya is
floundering in disorder with a weak central government unable to
impose its authority on rival political factions and brigades of
former rebels.
EQUIPMENT REQUESTS
Kerry addressed the many challenges still facing Tunisia, among them
persistent violence by Islamist militants whose leader has pledged
allegiance to al Qaeda's North African wing, officials said. Kerry
said he had discussed Tunisian requests for more assistance,
following the U.S. provision of $400 million since Ben Ali's
downfall, and that included more counter-terrorism aid, though he
declined to say what exactly the United States might provide.
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"Most of the requests were focused on equipment, although there is
some thought about training and assistance in other ways, but that
has to be discussed thoroughly," he said.
U.S. officials said they would hand over a mobile command post for
conducting terrorism investigations and a mobile crime laboratory on
Wednesday.
Tunisian security forces have been battling militants from the
banned Islamist movement Ansar al-Sharia, one of the radical groups
to emerge after Ben Ali's fall.
Ansar al-Sharia was blamed for inciting the storming of the U.S.
embassy in Tunis on September 14, 2012 and has since been listed by
Washington as a terrorist organization, with ties to al Qaeda in the
Islamic Maghreb.
Kerry's visit to Tunisia is the first by a U.S. Secretary of State
since that incident, which occurred three days after an attack on a
U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi in Libya killed the U.S.
ambassador and three other Americans.
U.S. officials had earlier said Kerry would press Tunisia to step up
efforts to arrest the attackers.
(Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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