CAIRO: Mohammed Bassiouni, a former Egyptian ambassador to Israel, has died in Cairo. He was 74.
Egypt’s MENA state news agency quoted his son Hatem as saying Bassiouni died Sunday at home.
Bassiouni, a former military officer, served as coordinator between the Egyptian and Syrian armies in the 1973 war with Israel and as a member of the joint Egyptian-Syrian command.
Egypt and Israel signed a peace deal in 1979. Bassiouni served in the Egyptian Embassy in Tel Aviv in 1982 and became ambassador in 1986. He was recalled in 2000 in protest of Israel’s measures while confronting the second Palestinian uprising.
After his return, Bassiouni was appointed deputy head of the Foreign Relations Committee in Egypt’s Shoura Council, parliament’s upper house.