Abbas greeted in Tunisia with military honours

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Saturday arrived in Tunis for a four-day official visit. The Palestinian leader was greeted with military honours at the airport by President Moncef Marzouki and president of the National Constituent Assembly Mustapha Ben Jaafar. He was due to hold talks later with both the president and Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali whose moderate Islamist party Ennahda won elections in October after the ouster last year of long-serving dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The visit is the third by Abbas to Tunisia since the fall of Ben Ali. During his visit he will commemorate the Tunisians and Palestinians killed during Israel's 1985 air raid on the PLO headquarters. Its leader Yasser Arafat found asylum in Tunsia from 1982 to 1994 after a forced departure from Lebanon. After leaving Tunisia, Abbas will travel to Libya to meet the country's new leaders.