Israel Set to Approve New Ambassador to Egypt

Israel’s cabinet is expected on Sunday to approve the appointment of Amira Oron as the country’s new ambassador to Egypt. She was initially tapped for the post in October 2018, but a vote on her candidacy was never held as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reportedly sought to give it to Likud party loyalist Ayoub Kara. If approved, Oron will take over from David Govrin, who, a year after he assumed the post in 2016, returned to Israel together with his staff for unspecified security reasons. Once back in Cairo, he and his staff resumed their duties, working out of his official residence. Oron served as ambassador to Turkey from 2014 to 2016 and was head of the Foreign Ministry’s Egypt division. Despite the landmark 1979 peace treaty between the two countries, bilateral ties have generally remained frosty. However, relations at the political and defense levels have improved during the presidency of Abdel al-Fattah al-Sisi, who has been instrumental in mediating between Israel and Hamas while expanding security cooperation in the Sinai Peninsula to combat the emergence of an Islamic State affiliate.