Leaders of Tunisia, France talk over phone

PARIS — Tunisian President Kais Saied on Saturday held a phone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron over bilateral ties and the knife attack that took place on Thursday in France’s Nice, according to the Tunisian presidency’s office.

Saied expressed his condemnation of all forms of violence and terrorism and said there is no room for doubt that some parties want to destabilize many societies, a statement released by the presidency said.

During the conversation, the two presidents also discussed the issue of illegal immigration and the solutions that must be reached together to address the issue.

A knife- wielding man on Thursday morning attacked worshippers at Notre- Dame basilica in central Nice, leaving three people dead. The suspect was identified as a 21- year- old Tunisian national.

The suspected assailant was shot by police and is now in critical condition in a hospital.

French police said on Saturday that another person was taken into custody in connection with the attack. That person joins three others already in custody on suspicion of contacts with the attacker.

Macron has deployed thousands of soldiers to protect sites such as places of worship and schools.

The Nice attack, on the day Muslims celebrated the Prophet Mohammad’s birthday, came amid growing Muslim anger across the world over France’s defense of the right to publish cartoons depicting the Prophet.

Violence not acceptable

In an effort to rectify what he said were misapprehensions about France’s intentions in the Muslim world, Macron gave an interview to Arabic television network Al Jazeera that was broadcast on Saturday.

In it, he said France would not back down in the face of violence and would defend the right to free expression, including the publication of cartoons.

But he stressed that did not mean he or his officials supported the cartoons, which Muslims consider blasphemous, or that France was in any way anti- Muslim.

“So I understand and respect that people could be shocked by these cartoons, but I will never accept that one can justify physical violence over these cartoons, and I will always defend the freedom in my country to write, to think, to draw,” Macron said based on an interview transcript released by his office.

“My role is to calm things down, which is what I’m doing, but at the same time, it’s to protect these rights.”