Egypt denies gas deal with Israel

The Egyptian foreign minister Ahmad Abu al-Gheit said that the Israeli government approved the nomination of the Egyptian candidate for the post of the new ambassador in Tel Aviv, ambassador Muhammad Asem.

Asem ( 59 year old) was Egypt's ambassador to Sudan since 2000 and he acquired higher posts in the Egyptian diplomatic crop and worked in several diplomatic missions abroad especially in the USA, Canada, Ethiopia and Kenya, he also occupied the post of the assistant and secretary of the Egyptian foreign minister Kamal Hassan Ali.

Meanwhile, the first secretary of the Egyptian oil company, Abdullah Gharab, denied on Tuesday Israeli reports which said that the two countries finalized a deal to export the Egyptian natural gas to Tel Aviv. He said that "Egypt and Israel have not signed any special agreement on exporting Egyptian gas to Israel and that any agreement to this effect will be announced in advance."

However, Israel announced on Tuesday it completed its suggestions on importing the natural gas from Egypt and will submit these suggestions to the Egyptian government within days in line with the improvement of bilateral relations. A spokeswoman for the minister of the infrastructure Benjamin Ben Aliazer said that the latter agreed to a suggestion that will be submitted to the Egyptian side within days.