CAIRO: Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv reported yesterday that the head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF), Hussein Tantawi, refuted the government's decision to recall the Egyptian ambassador from Tel-Aviv. The decision to do so was made at the last minute. The ambassador was to be withdrawn after last week's incident involving the killing of Egyptian security forces during an Israeli counter offensive aimed at taking out the Egyptians that had launched several attacks in southern Israel last Thursday. “Tantawi ended the crisis in the last moments,” reported Ma'ariv correspondent Eli Berdenstein. According to Berdenstein, Tantawi also rebuked the Egyptian Prime minister's decision by outranking him and thus quashing his initial decision to recall the ambassador. Regret was expressed by the Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, over the death of the Egyptian soldiers. Coincidentally, Egypt announced shortly after that the previous statement made by the government in regards to recalling their ambassador was incorrect, the papper added. Israeli sources have said that Tantawi's decision to intervene was an effort to maintain relations between both sides. Israel will also be sending back their ambassador to Egypt, noting that Egyptians realize that there could have been a crisis between both nations. “If the Egyptian ambassador left Tel Aviv, he would have never returned again because of Egyptian public opinion,” sources said. The crisis would have deteriorated rapidly had the ambassador not been redeployed, they added. BM
