TNA Staff
The New Arab / March 27, 2025
Egypt disinvited the Israeli ambassador to Cairo from a ceremony in a move designed to show its anger over Israel breaking the ceasefire in Gaza.
Israel’s new ambassador to Egypt, Orie Rothman, was disinvited from a diplomatic ceremony at Cairo’s Ittihadiya Palace earlier this week, where President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi accepted the credentials of 23 new ambassadors.
Rothman’s exclusion—despite the post being vacant for nearly eight months—has raised questions about the state of Egyptian-Israeli relations amid growing regional tensions over Israel’s brutal war on Gaza.
Egyptian diplomatic sources told The New Arab’s sister site Al-Araby al-Jadeed that the exclusion of the Israeli ambassador from the list of newly accredited diplomats is linked to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent breaking of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.
The source also cited Israel’s insistence on pursuing a plan to forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza as a reason for the disinvitation.
The sources clarified that “the delay in accrediting the ambassador does not necessarily signify a downgrading of diplomatic relations between Egypt and Israel, but it reflects a sovereign stance with political and symbolic dimensions”.
On the other hand, the same sources said that the procedures for appointing a new Egyptian ambassador to Tel Aviv remain on hold, despite several months having passed since the previous ambassador, Khaled Azmi, completed his term and returned home.
This reflects the evident stagnation in Egyptian-Israeli relations since the outbreak of the Israeli war on Gaza in October, 2023.
Diplomatic and security sources said that the Egyptian side has expressed “deep frustration” over “uncooperative Israeli conduct” during ongoing negotiations between Egypt and Israel regarding the situation in the Gaza Strip.
The sources noted that Cairo conveyed clear messages to this effect through multiple diplomatic channels, most notably in a phone call between US President Donald Trump’s former Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdel Aaty on Tuesday
Although Egypt continues to play a central role in mediation efforts between Israel and Hamas —particularly concerning ceasefire talks and prisoner exchanges—the absence of ambassador-level diplomatic representation reflects an unprecedented chill in official relations between Egypt and Israel.
This tension is likely to persist unless there is a breakthrough in the political process or a permanent ceasefire.
The accreditation of ambassadors is a formal protocol signifying the host country’s recognition of the envoy, but under international law, host countries retain the sovereign right to accept, delay, or reject the accreditation of any ambassador without offering a public explanation.
