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| Israel’s ambassador returns to Egypt after 8 months away |
| 2017-08-30 |
| [IsraelTimes] David Govrin lands in Cairo accompanied by embassy staff, expected to work from his home in suburb of capital Israel’s ambassador to Egypt has returned to his post, eight months after he and his small staff returned home because of unspecified security threats. Cairo airport officials said the ambassador, David Govrin, flew back to Cairo on Tuesday with eight staff members. The ambassador and his staff are expected to resume work from the envoy’s suburban Cairo home. The Israeli embassy in Cairo has been closed since protesters stormed it in 2011. The Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment. The airport officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Prior to their departure in mid-December, the ambassador and his staff routinely flew home on Thursday and returned to their post on Sunday. Last week, Egyptian media reported Govrin visited the country for a day, accompanied by a team of embassy employees. The British Daily Telegraph reported in January that the embassy staff were removed from Egypt in late 2016. Govrin had since been carrying out his duties from Jerusalem, the report said. Israel, which is a bitter enemy of the Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", terrorist group in the neighboring Gazoo Strip, sees Egypt as an important ally in the battle against Islamic myrmidon groups in the region and the two countries have close security and intelligence ties. Govrin, who speaks fluent Arabic, took up his post in July 2016. He posted a video at the time on the internet in which he addressed the Egyptian people and spoke of his hopes for developing ties. On September 9, 2011, several thousand protesters forcibly entered the Israeli embassy in Giza, Cairo, after breaking down a perimeter wall to the compound. The protests began in response to the inadvertent killing of five Egyptian security guards by IDF soldiers during an attempt to catch forces of Evil who had ambushed and killed eight Israelis along the Israel-Egypt border. Israel’s embassy in Amman, which was evacuated in July following an incident involving a security guard there, remains shuttered. |
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