Israel names envoy to South Sudan

January 10, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – The foreign ministry of Israel on Tuesday named an envoy to the new Republic of South Sudan, few weeks after South Sudan’s president visited the Jewish State.

The ministry said that the former director of its political planning division, Haim Koren, will serve as a non-resident ambassador in South Sudan’s capital Juba.

Koren’s appointment comes after the South Sudanese president, Salva Kiir, paid a one day visit to Israel in late December where he was warmly welcomed and held talks with top Israeli officials, including President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The new envoy, who previously served in the U.S. and Egypt, is an Arabic speaking expert who can distinguish among local Sudanese dialects, according to Jerusalem Post.

In this capacity, the paper said, he was used by security officials a number of times when they were trying to determine whether illegal immigrants in Israel claiming to be political refugees from Sudan’s western region of Darfur were indeed from that region.

Israel has been grappling with an influx of immigrants coming from South Sudan through its shared borders with Egypt. The Jewish state is seeking to repatriate more than 8000 illegal immigrants to the new country.

Jerusalem Post also mentioned that Koren’s previous nomination as Israel’s ambassador to Turkmenistan was rejected by the country’s government which claimed he was a spy because he had spent three years as an instructor at the National Security College.

South Sudan, which seceded from the Muslim ruled Sudan in July last year, received covert support from the Jewish state during its war against the north, which lasted for more than two decades.

Israel was quick to recognise the independence of the country and pledged to establish full diplomatic and economic relations with Juba.

(ST)