Fuwa talks with Tunisian foreign minister on history and international issues

Fuwa Tetsuzo, Japanese Communist Party Central Committee chair, held talks with Habib Ben Yahia, Tunisian Foreign Minister and Constitutional Democratic Rally Political Bureau member in Tunis on July 31. Topics ranged from ways to establish a peaceful international order, the Iraq question, and the Middle East conflict.

Referring to the revision of the JCP Program, Fuwa explained that the draft to be presented at the JCP congress states that Japan in the future will break away from the military alliance with the United States to become non-aligned and neutral, and maintain the principle of coexistence of different cultures.

Fuwa also stressed that it was significant that most governments and organizations that opposed the Iraq war called for the United Nations Charter to be defended, adding that this sets the trend for the 21st century.

He referred to the speech of Tunisian President and CDR leader, Zein el-Abidine Ben Ali, to the CDR congress, which called for an international peace based on the U.N. Charter to be defended and the pressing international questions over Iraq and the Middle East to be resolved based on this position. Fuwa said that he found many common basic principles on international politics that he shared with the Tunisian president.

Fuwa said that the CDR and the JCP have a common stand in opposing the U.S. war against Iraq and calling for a resolution of the Middle East question centered on the coexistence of two states, Palestine and Israel. Fuwa asked for Tunisia's view of the present condition of the Palestine question.

Foreign Minister Ben Yahia explained the basic points of Tunisia's foreign policy as trying to make friends with every country, make no enemies, and seek solidarity that can tolerate diversity.

Ben Yahia said that the history of Tunisia is an embodiment of the mission to coexist with different civilizations and propagate them.

On the Palestine question, Ben Yahia said that Tunisia since the 1960s have been maintaining that Israel and Palestine need to coexist.

Ben Yahia went on to say that the reason for terrorism or radicalism must not be sought in religion but in the existence of social distress and poverty. He said that this was the conclusion their studies have arrived at, and that the Tunisian government tried to get to the bottom of terrorism through social and economic reforms.

Referring to his meeting in 1981 with Palestine Liberation Organization Chair Yasser Arafat, Fuwa commented that a struggle lacking in legitimacy will harm the cause of the movement. Ben Yahia agreed with this comment and added that it will reduce the movement to zero. Fuwa said that Tunisia's experience of trying to get rid of terrorism at its root should be made widely known. (end)