The new Israeli ambassador to Egypt Haim Koren, arrived at Cairo Airport, Sunday afternoon, coming from Tel Aviv to take over his new position as successor to the former ambassador Yaakov Amitai.
According to a diplomatic Egyptian source Koren will submit his credentials in the coming days, before starting his official duties.
Israel decided on 24 October last to appoint Koren, who has been its ambassador to South Sudan, as ambassador to Egypt.
The Israeli embassy has been closed in Cairo since protesters attempted to storm it in 2011 over the killing of Egyptian soldiers on border.
The ambassador has been residing outside the embassy and moving between Cairo and Tel Aviv since then due to security concerns.
Koren is known as a figure plays a role in drawing Israel's relations with the African continent. He held important positions in the Israeli Foreign Ministry's Department of Strategic Planning, a department closely related to Israel's national security, according to Israeli media. Koren worked as consul in Nepal, Alexandria, and Chicago. Koren was director of the Middle East Department at the Israeli Foreign Ministry. He was as well a lecturer at Haifa University, and a researcher at the University of Chicago, where he wrote his doctoral thesis on Sudan's Darfur, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
The Turkmenistanian Foreign Ministry refused Koren's appointment as ambassador of Israel to Turkmenistan, according to Israeli media. The Israeli tenth channel reported that Turkmenistan rejected Koren because Juba has accused him more than once of contributing to tensing its relations with Khartoum.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
