Iraqi govt. says respects Tunisian people’s choice

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraq respects the Tunisian people’s choice of sweeping their president from power and would not interfere in their affairs, according to the Iraqi government spokesman on Sunday. “Iraq does not want to have any role outside its borders. However, we wish stability for the Tunisian people and that they choose whoever they deem suitable to rule Tunisia,” Ali al-Dabbagh told IraqiNews.com news agency. Dabbagh’s remarks were the first Iraqi government’s reaction to the incidents witnessed in Tunisia during the past few days which ended up in the overthrow of its president, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, after 23 years in power. Ben Ali escaped to Saudi Arabia on Friday (Jan. 14). He had fired his government after a wave of protests in several Tunisian cities, starting with the area of Sidi Bu Aziz, where a jobless man who carries a university degree set himself ablaze when the municipal authorities confiscated a cart on which he sold vegetables in mid-December 2010. AmR (TP) 589