Israel has opened
its new Cairo embassy inside its ambassador's residence, saying on
Thursday that holdups in finding separate premises as is customary had
encumbered an already challenging relationship with Egypt.
Egypt
was the first of a handful of Arab countries to recognise Israel, with a
U.S.-sponsored 1979 peace accord but Egyptian attitudes to their
neighbour have often been hostile.
Israel's
previous embassy, in the upper stories of a sooty apartment bloc on the
Nile corniche dwarfed by business towers and luxury hotels, was
ransacked in 2011 by a mob incensed at the cross-fire killing of five
Egyptian border guards by the Israeli army as it repelled a raid by
Sinai Islamist insurgents.
Since
then, Israeli diplomats had worked out of the ambassador's villa in
Cairo's leafy, heavily policed Maadi district, riding out political
upheavals that saw the rise and fall of the Muslim Brotherhood followed
by the current pro-Western administration of President Abdel Fattah
al-Sisi.
The inauguration of the
embassy on Wednesday went unreported by Egyptian media. Israel announced
it in a statement that did not specify the mission's location. The
Israeli delegate who officiated, Foreign Ministry Director-General Dore
Gold, outranked the sole Egyptian representative.
"We made a decision
to move forward - that it would not be worthwhile delaying this with
more discussions about the premises," Gold told Israel Radio on
Thursday.
He praised Sisi's
administration as an Israeli partner in "working for Middle East
stability and prosperity" and suggested more Egyptian officials might
have come to the opening were it not for a coincidental visit to Cairo
by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Months
of scouting for a separate embassy building had been snagged by
wrangling over leases and security arrangements, Israeli and Egyptian
diplomats said. They described the new location in Ambassador Haim
Koren's residence as temporary.
Like his 10
predecessors, Koren has at times had to weather a cold shoulder from his
Egyptian hosts. He was not among foreign envoys invited to Sisi's
splashy inauguration last month of an extension to the Suez Canal.
Koren said having his home double as the embassy would help his staff's diplomatic duties without impeding his movements.
"We are happy to
move into a fixed position after a period of quite some difficulty and
unacceptable conditions," he told Israel's Army Radio. "I can go to all
kinds of places and meet people as usual - with the requisite
preparations, of course."
Few
Egyptians visit Israel, so the Cairo embassy's visa workload is light.
Its diplomats often focusg on cultural and agricultural initiatives.
National security coordination between the countries is handled directly
by military delegates.
Egypt
withdrew its ambassador from Israel in protest at the 2012 Gaza war, but
in June announced it would send in a new envoy. He is expected to
arrive early next month, according to the Israeli Foreign Ministry.