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© UnknownPeople celebrate in their vehicles in front of the Tunisian Interior Ministry after Tunisian President Ben Ali's address to the nation in Tunis
The Tunisia crisis could highly spread throughout the Arab world and threaten the "authoritarian" Arab governments, says a former ambassador to the UN.

In an interview with Press TV, Clovis Maksoud, Lebanon's former ambassador and permanent observer of the League of Arab States at the United Nations added that Tunisia uprising is a wake-up call for the Arab world.

"It's going to be infectious in several other areas in a manner that might not necessarily lead to bloodshed but [could] weaken the authority [in many Arab countries]," Maksoud told Press TV.

Tunisian President Zine El Abidin Ben Ali fled the country on Friday after a month of popular revolt that claimed dozens of lives. He had earlier fired his government and announced early elections.

Maksoud called on the Arab world to be "recipient to the outcome of the results of this development in the sense that it will have to recognize whatever legitimate authority comes out of the termination that is taking place at this moment."

"Don't forget the Arab world is a rich nation of poor people," Maksoud warned, saying that "There will be now a response on the part of many governments to try to accommodate some of the legitimate demands to the extent that they might in the process weaken their own authority."
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Game over for Ben Ali - Tunisian mass protests sent the dictator packing to Saudi Arabia