Egyptian former ambassador to Israel Bassioumi dies
Mohammad Bassioumi - Haaretz
Mohammed Bassiouni, the Egyptian former ambassador to Israel, died of an illness at the age of 74, Egyptian and Israeli media reported on Sunday.
Bassiouni served as an ambassador in Tel Aviv between 1986 and 2000, and upon his return to Egypt he served as an expert on Israeli affairs.
He enlisted in the Egyptian army in the fifties, where he climbed up the ranks and became brigadier general. He served as a military attaché in Damascus and Tehran, and was appointed deputy ambassador to Israel in 1980. In 1986 he was appointed to ambassador – a post he served in until being recalled by former President Hosni Mubarak in 2000, in protest of the Al Aqsa Intifiada, Israeli daily Haaretz reported.
In 2008, Bassiouni gave an interview to Haaretz and denied Israeli reports about having been sent to Israel as an undercover intelligence officer.
“Since 1980, when I was appointed to the Israel post, I have had no contact with Egyptian intelligence. I reported solely to the Foreign Ministry,” he said.
In recent years Bassiouni served as a member of the Shura Council (the upper house of parliament) and as chairman of the foreign affairs and national security council. His military funeral will be held on Monday, the daily said.
