Israel, Mauritania to celebrate their diplomatic relations establishment tomorrow

The Israeli Foreign Ministry has announced that Israel and Mauritania, who have established relations on the level of "interests supervision," will raise the level of their relations to the ambassadorial level and that a celebration will be held on this occasion today in Washington to officially declare this matter.

In a statement, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said that Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy will signed on Thursday in Washington an agreement to establish complete diplomatic relations with Mauritania. The statement added that the celebration will be held at the US State Department. He said that US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has decided to invite Levy and Mauritanian Foreign Minister Ahmad Ould Sayed Ahmad to Washington after she learned that Israel and Mauritania are ready to sign the agreement.

The statement said that the US undersecretary of state for the Near East affairs, Martin Indyk, and the director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Eitan Bin Tsour, have worked together to reach an agreement on the diplomatic relations between Israel and Mauritania.

The statement said the US administration and Israel find in this agreement an encouraging signal in order to normalize relations between Israel and "certain countries, a matter that should be the target of the Middle East peace process."

A high ranking official at the Israeli Foreign Ministry said, "The exchange of ambassadors between Israel and Mauritania is to take place shortly."

Israel and Mauritania have since 1996 had relations on the level of an "interests supervising" department.