27/07/2012 10:56
Leon Panetta to visit Middle East
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta heads to Tunisia and Egypt next week to support their "democratic transitions" and to Israel and Jordan to discuss the Syrian conflict, the Pentagon said.
Recent regime changes in Tunis and Cairo present "new opportunities for security cooperation," spokesman George Little told reporters on Thursday, the AFP reports.
The Pentagon chief will stop first in Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring series of popular uprisings against longstanding autocratic regimes in North Africa and the Middle East.