Tunisia - History
	Until 1883, when Tunisia formally became a French protectorate, the country was a semi-independent monarchy, with the Bey of Tunis as Head of State. In the 1930s a campaign for independence from French rule began, led by the Neo-Dustour (New Constitution) Party, founded in 1934 by Habib Bourguiba and a section of active former members of the Dustour movement. France granted Tunisia internal self-government in September 1955 and full independence on 20 March 1956. Five days later elections were held for a Constitutional Assembly, which met in April and appointed Bourguiba as Prime Minister in a Government dominated by members of the Neo-Dustour Party. Following Iraq´s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, Ben Ali condemned Iraq, but expressed disapproval of the US-led multinational force deployed in the region of the Persian (Arabian) Gulf. His official criticism of Western intervention in the dispute was apparently influenced by the growing Arab nationalist support for Iraq within Tunisia. Evidence of this was the formation of the Comité National de Soutien ŕ l´Irak, a political organization comprising most opposition parties and professional associations. Disagreement over government policy regarding the Gulf crisis was the apparent cause of the replacement, in late August, of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ismail Khelil, by Habib Boulares. In September the Government announced that it would comply with the resolutions of the UN Security Council concerning Iraq, including the imposition of a trade embargo. Relations with the other countries of the Maghreb improved considerably in the 1980s. A meeting between President Bourguiba and President Chadli of Algeria in March 1983 led to the drafting of the Maghreb Fraternity and Co-operation Treaty, which envisaged the eventual creation of a Greater Maghreb Union, and was signed by Mauritania in December 1983. However, in September 1985 Tunisia severed diplomatic relations with Libya following its expulsion of some 30,000 Tunisian workers. The dispute was subsequently resolved and diplomatic relations were restored in late 1987. In January 1988 Tunisia and Algeria held further discussions on the establishment of a greater Arab Maghreb, and in April border restrictions between Tunisia and Libya were removed. In February 1989, at a meeting of North African Heads of State in Morocco, a treaty was concluded that proclaimed the Union of the Arab Maghreb (UMA), comprising Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia. The treaty envisaged the establishment of a council of heads of state; regular meetings of ministers responsible for foreign affairs; and, eventually, the free movement of goods, people, services and capital throughout the countries of the region. In January 1988 the Tunisian Government announced that diplomatic relations with Egypt, which had been severed in 1979, would be resumed. In March 1990 Ben Ali made the first visit to Cairo by a Tunisian President since 1965, and signed several agreements on bilateral co-operation between the two countries. In September 1990 Tunisia and Iran restored diplomatic relations, which had been suspended in 1987. Also in September a majority of members of the Arab League resolved to move the League´s headquarters from Tunis (where it had heen ´temporarily´ established in 1979) to its original site in Cairo. The Tunisian´ Government protested at the decision.