Israel appoints 1st female ambassador to Egypt

JERUSALEM (AA) – Israel has appointed a female ambassador to Egypt, for the first time since signing their peace treaty in 1979.

Amira Oron was named to the post by the top appointments committee of the Israeli Foreign Ministry on Tuesday, according to Israeli newspaper Yedioth Aharonoth.

She will replace David Govrin, who has been serving as Israel's ambassador to Egypt since 2016.

A fluent Arabic-speaking diplomat, Oron began working in the foreign ministry in the early 1990s.

She had previously served as Israeli ambassador to Turkey from 2014 to 2016.

Oron had worked in the Israeli Embassy in Cairo where she was the deputy director of the media department there.

Oron will be the second woman to serve as Israeli ambassador in an Arab country after Einat Klein, who was Israeli ambassador in Jordan.

Egypt was the first Arab country to recognize Israel following the signing of their peace treaty in 1979.

Israel opened its embassy in Cairo in February 1980. Egypt opened its embassy in Tel Aviv one month later. In 1982, Israel completed its withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula, which it occupied during the 1967 Middle East war.