Israel, Egypt at odds over FM designate

The designated head of the National Security Council, Uzi Arad, and Deputy Foreign Minister-designate Daniel Ayalon are currently holding talks with Egypt in the hopes of preventing a possible diplomatic crisis in the event that Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman is indeed appointed to the office of foreign minister.

Tensions between the Egyptian and Israeli governments are nothing new, but they have certainly been exacerbated ever since Lieberman's accession to the post was seen to be likely. Several years ago, Lieberman tated that, in the event of a war with Egypt, Israel should destroy the Aswan dam on the Nile.

More recently, he strained Egyptian-Israeli relations when he said Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak could "go to hell" if he remained unwilling to visit Israel and slammed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Shimon Peres for issuing an apology on Israel's behalf.

An additional source of tension with Egypt comes in the form of Likud MK Yuval Steinitz, also poised to being a government minister, who has also had several outbursts against Israel.

On Wednesday, Arad met with Egypt's ambassador to Israel, Yasser Ridah, in an attempt to alleviate sources of tension and "find ways to work together," the former said.

Saturday night, Israel Channel 2 publicized that Egypt had set an ultimatum in which it demanded an apology from Lieberman in order to prevent a diplomatic crisis. Yossi Levy, the spokesman for Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu said "this is not accurate."

"There is consistent contact on a number of levels between the Foreign Minister-designate and the Egyptian government, in order to continue the trend of good relations between the country," Levy said.

'There was no ultimatum'

Ayalon also confirmed that the televised reports were inaccurate, saying "such a thing never happened. There was no ultimatum. We have ongoing relations with Egypt and will continue talking with them and building a relationship through dialogue."

Ayalon has also been working with Jordanian representatives to allay fears regarding Lieberman's alleged extremism. He pointed out that many of Lieberman's slogans, for example, were geared at the period of elections.

In the meantime, the primary focus remains on Egypt, whose officials have said, at least in closed meetings, that without an apology from Lieberman to Mubarak to appear in Israeli and Egyptian media, Egypt will not conduct a relationship with the Foreign Minister-designate.

These officials have stressed that Lieberman's placement in such a position would damage relations between the two countries. At this point, for example, it is unclear whether the Egyptian ambassador will take part in a Foreign Ministry-organized event marking 30 years of peace between the two nations, a step that could widen the rift even further.

But diplomatic officials in Jerusalem stressed that Egypt has interests in remaining in good relations with Israel, even under a Netanyahu-led government with Lieberman as FM. "Someone has blown this issue completely out of proportion," one of them said.

Ali Waked and AFP contributed to this report