Reagan Remarks on Raid Caused Shock : U.S.-Tunisian Ties: Irreparable Harm?

Despite intensive efforts by the Reagan Administration to mend its relations with Tunisia, government officials and diplomats here say that irreparable damage has been done because of President Reagan’s initial support of the Israeli raid on the Tunis headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

“I don’t think that relations will ever be the same,” a Western diplomat said, speaking on condition that he not be further identified. “In my estimation, irreparable harm has been done.”

Senior Tunisian officials confirmed that Tunisia was prepared to sever diplomatic relations with Washington and would have done so if the United States had vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the Oct. 1 Israeli raid in which 72 people, including 12 Tunisians, were killed.

Secret No Longer

Mahmoud Mestiri, minister of state for foreign affairs, said in an interview: “I guess it’s not a secret any more. We had decided to break diplomatic relations. We would have done so if the United States had not abstained in the Security Council vote.”

The U.N. resolution, adopted Oct. 5 by a vote of 14-0, with the United States casting the lone abstention, condemned Israel’s “act of armed aggression” and said Tunisia was entitled to seek “appropriate reparations.”

Diplomatic sources said the U.S. decision not to veto the resolution was made in part out of concern that popular anger over the raid would lead to a major domestic crisis for the government of President Habib Bourguiba, who for nearly 30 years has been one of America’s closest allies in the Arab world.

“The atmosphere was so electrified here that had the Americans vetoed the resolution, the Tunisians would have been obliged to sever relations,” one Mideast expert said. “They didn’t want to do this, but the public mood here was explosive. They would have had no choice.”

The abstention and subsequent statements by Reagan hailing Bourguiba as a “gifted statesman” and “true friend” of the United States have helped to cool Tunisian tempers, but officials here say they believe that the close relations that successive U.S. administrations have had with Tunisia over the years have now come to an end.

Inevitable Change

Most analysts say that such a change was inevitable as a generation raised amid the Arab-Israeli conflict begins to replace one whose political consciousness was formed during the struggle for independence from France.

“Bourguiba has always been a great, almost unquestioning friend of the United States, and that’s a bit unnatural for a small country like Tunisia,” a Western diplomat said. “Inevitably, any successor government would have had to make some adjustments in the relationship.”

Until now, this change had been gradual and no one had expected a major shift in Tunisia’s position toward the United States until after the death of Bourguiba, who is officially listed as being 81 but is believed to be closer to 85.

But Reagan’s reaction to the raid as a “legitimate response” to terrorism changed things overnight, a senior diplomat said.

A West European diplomat said that Tunisians were shocked and angered by the suggestion implicit in Reagan’s remarks that, despite their close alliance over the years, the United States now sees Tunisia as just another Arab country condoning terrorism.

“There was a sense of betrayal,” this diplomat said, because Tunisia took in the PLO three years ago at the request of the United States, which was then looking for a place to put the PLO leadership after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

Exaggeration Seen

Reports from Washington have quoted Administration officials as saying they believe that Tunisia’s harsh reaction to Reagan’s remarks was motivated by concern that Libyan-backed mobs might take to the streets and overthrow Bourguiba. The reports suggested that only America’s abstention in the Security Council had averted this.

Officials here see this as something of an exaggeration. They note that while Libyan radio did call upon Tunisians to revolt, the anti-American demonstrations that took place after the Israeli raid were small and apparently spontaneous.

“Most of the demonstrators were high school types,” a U.S. official said. “There were never more than 200 or 300 at a time and they never got anywhere near us.”

Tunisian officials say that while the need to mollify public opinion was a major consideration, the main factor behind Tunisia’s threat to sever diplomatic relations was Bourguiba’s personal outrage at Reagan’s remarks.

“When he first heard about the raid, Bourguiba felt sorry for the Americans because he knew it had put them in an embarrassing position to be caught between loyalties to two allies,” said Mestiri, the minister of state for foreign affairs. “But he was very much outraged by President Reagan’s position. He did not expect this quick American reaction.”

The swiftness of the White House reaction has also reinforced a popular perception here that the United States must have known of the raid in advance--a suspicion that lingers even at official levels despite categorical U.S. and Israeli denials.

6th Fleet Network

“We have to accept their assurances that they did not know, because we have to take our friends at their word,” Mestiri said. “But the (U.S.) 6th Fleet maintains a very extensive monitoring network in our area. If planes can go back and forth across the Mediterranean without their knowing about it, then what is the 6th Fleet there for?”

A Western European diplomat said that the Tunisians simply “cannot believe that the United States did not know about the raid,” adding: “This has shattered the confidence Tunisians had in the United States. Now there is real distrust.”

There are signs, as tempers cool, that the Tunisians are trying to “turn the page,” in one diplomat’s words, and get on with more normal relations with the United States, on which Tunisia is heavily dependent for economic and military assistance.

This, diplomats note, is especially true now that Tunisia faces a growing threat from hostile Libya, which in recent weeks has expelled more than 30,000 Tunisian workers and seems bent on doing all it can to destabilize its tiny pro-American neighbor. Of the $90 million in U.S. assistance that Tunisia is receiving this year, more than two-thirds is military aid meant to protect Tunisia from the Libyan threat.

“Severing relations with the United States would have been the popular thing for Bourguiba to do from an emotional standpoint, but it would not have made any sense at all politically,” a Western diplomat said.

‘Devastating Consequences’

And a longtime foreign resident and expert on Tunisian affairs observed: “The U.S. decision not to veto the U.N. resolution was greeted with real relief here, because the Tunisians knew that for them the consequences of severing relations would have been devastating.”

Nevertheless, officials and diplomats here think it will be a long time before the warmth begins to seep back into U.S.-Tunisian relations.

Mestiri said: “The damage in public opinion has really been great. Obviously, we cannot go around changing alliances just like that. But the relationship cannot return to what it was before. The confidence of 30 years has been breached.”

Times staff writer Michael Ross recently returned to Cairo from an assignment in Tunisia.