Egypt Names New Ambassador to Israel
Egypt on Sunday appointed a new ambassador to Israel to fill a post that had been vacant since ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi recalled the previous envoy in 2012.
State news agency MENA said that Hazem Khairat, a former ambassador to Chile, was appointed by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. It did not say when he will take up his post.
Khairat's appointment was immediately "deeply" welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"We’ve been informed by the government of Egypt that it is dispatching an ambassador to Israel. This is an important piece of news, we appreciate it," Netanyahu said in Jerusalem.
"It's something that is deeply welcome in Israel, and I think it's very good for cementing the peace that exists between Egypt and Israel," he said at a joint news conference with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.
Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979. Jordan followed suit in 1994.
Ties between the two neighbors soured after Morsi's June 2012 election as president following the ouster of his predecessor Hosni Mubarak in the 2011 uprising.
Morsi recalled Egypt's envoy to Israel in November 2012 to protest against a series of Israeli air raids on the Gaza Strip that killed top Hamas militant Ahmed Jaabari.
He was killed at the start of an eight-day Israeli operation dubbed Pillar of Defense in which 177 Palestinians and six Israelis were killed. The violence stopped after Egypt brokered a truce.
Morsi was ousted by then army chief Sisi in July 2013.
Later that year, the Israeli foreign ministry named Middle East specialist Haim Koren as the Jewish state's next ambassador to Egypt.
22 June 2015, 04:30
20
Egypt can reach peace with Israel, Jordan can reach peace with Israel. Yet Lebanon can't, or perhaps doesn't want to. Not having peace means that Lebanon can amply "pass the buck" by blaming Israel for everything that goes wrong inside the country.
22 June 2015, 05:39
22
Lebanon unlike the 2 countries u mention has a people who can never bend cow tow. In this country we have real leaders and in this country WE WILL NEVER FORGET the attoricties and massacres your leaders commited on our holy land! Today thanks to the resistance no one fears the war monger u call Israel!
PS
Labayka Ya Libnan :)
22 June 2015, 11:42
21
first of all why do you say "your leaders"?
Secondly in the 1980's the Lebanese and Israelis reached an agreement, but when the final draft was presented to the Lebanese Government, they were forced by the then Syrian occupiers to tear it up.
The Syrians are no longer is Lebanon, so what os the excuse now?
Thirdly, Israel only attacked Lebanon when armed forces not under the control of the Government of Lebanon attacked its territory.
Fourthly I think that we can all understand from your reply that what you call the "resistance" couldn't care less what the Government of Lebanon wants.
22 June 2015, 12:31
12
Philippo - as soon as Israel accept to take the millions of Palestinians they ethnically cleansed from what is now Israel, then I will support your position. As long as Israel continues with its crimes against the Palestinians, then I suggest that the overwhelming majority of Lebanese will tell u to take a hike - no matter what the delusions of the 'resistance' camp is which is destroying the country. In many respect Israel belongs to the same camp.
22 June 2015, 14:19
20
"the millions of Palestinians they ethnically cleansed" - so there are no Arab/Moslem Members of the Israeli Parliament, no Judges, Lawyers, Doctors, Nurses, and of course members of the National Soccer team. Apart from that there were at the most 500,000 who were ordered by their leadership in the mosques to flee, so that they could return after the Jews are wiped out. Out of those 1/2 million, just how many are still alive after 66 years? Very few who actually fit the international recognised definition of "refugees". By the way, what about the same number of Jews who were "ethnically cleansed" using your quote - who were forced to leave the Arab States at the same time. They don't count themselves as refugees as they have been fully integrated into Israel and all the other countries they went to.
22 June 2015, 14:20
20
ArabDemocrat.com - "As long as Israel continues with its crimes against the Palestinians" - So a Palestinian shooting dead an Israeli civilian in the West Bank last Friday was not a crime? An 18 year old from the village of Sair near Hebron who seriously knifed an Israeli Border guard in Jerusalem yesteday was not a crime? Hamas shooting rockets at Israeli towns and villages is not a crime?
