President Nixon announced today that the U.S. was resuming diplomatic relations with Egypt and formally named Herman Eilts as Ambassador to Egypt. The resumption of diplomatic ties was also announced today in Cairo by President Anwar Sadat during his meeting with Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger.
Eilts, a career foreign service officer who has done most of his service in Arab countries has been Ambassador-designate since Nov. 3, 1973 when the U.S. and Egypt said they would elevate their “interest sections” in Washington and Cairo to embassies. Egypt, however, held off full diplomatic relations pending further improvements in its relations with the U.S. This apparently has now been achieved. Dr. Ashraf Ghorbal was designated Egyptian Ambassador to the U.S. last November. Diplomatic relations between Egypt and the U.S. were broken during the Six-Day War.
(In Jerusalem, Israeli officials expressed confidence tonight that the renewal of diplomatic relations between Egypt and the U.S. would not be at Israel’s expense. One official noted that there was no reason to believe that the new development is at the expense of Israel. Officials here noted that Israel had traditionally been in favor of wide relations between all countries. “Diplomatic relations are natural,” one official noted. “It is their absence which is unnatural.” A similar view was expressed by Foreign Minister Abba Eban last November when Eilts and Dr. Ghorbal were designated.)
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
