New Israeli ambassador to take up post in Cairo next week

Israel’s new ambassador to Egypt, Yaakov Amitai, is to take up his post in Cairo on Monday, three months after an attack on the mission, a foreign ministry source said.

The source, declining to be named, said Amitai, replacing Yitzhak Levanon who has completed his term as ambassador to Egypt, would present his credentials at a later date.

On September 9, protesters attacked the Israeli embassy headquarters in a residential building in the centre of the Egyptian capital, forcing the evacuation of all embassy staff.

Crowds smashed through an external security wall, tossed embassy papers from balconies and tore down the Israeli flag.

It was the worst incident since Israel set up its mission in Egypt, the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with the Jewish state in 1979.

In September, officials from the Israeli embassy in Cairo made a short trip to Egypt to assess damage at the mission headquarters. Sources said the trip had been made to find a new location for the embassy.

Meanwhile, Amr Mousa, the former secretary general of the Arab League and a candidate for the Egyptian presidency, said on Friday that this year’s Arab Spring uprisings should effect the whole region, including Israel,.

“We are seeing a historic and serious change,” Mousa said at the World Policy Conference in Austria's capital. “Israel should change too.”

Mousa, who headed the Arab League from 2001 to 2011, said the Arab world has changed forever and recent events had created a "new regional order."

“Change has taken place from Mauritania to countries in the Gulf and no country will emerge unchanged,” he said.

“Even in Syria and Yemen, it’s just a matter of time.”

Since the start of the year, the Arab Spring uprisings have led to the collapse of three authoritarian regimes − in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.