Tantawi misses testimony to deal with 'security issues'

Furious Egyptian crowd attack Israeli embassy in Cairo   Israeli officials called on Sunday for relations with Egypt to return to normal despite Friday's attack by a mob on Israel's embassy in Cairo. "We shall do everything

 

 in order that relations between the two countries will return to normal," Environment Minister Gilad Erdan, considered close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told public radio.
"In this case the Egyptian authorities acted as they should," he said, referring to the rescue by Egyptian commandos of six Israeli security guards besieged in the embassy building for several hours Friday night by angry protesters.
The attack on the mission, in which crowds smashed through an external security wall, tossed embassy papers from balconies and tore down the Israeli flag, was the worst since Israel set up its mission in Egypt, the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with the Jewish state, in 1979.
Egyptian officials had said three people were killed and more than 1,000 people injured in clashes late on Friday between protesters and security forces near the embassy, following earlier peaceful demonstrations in Tahrir Square.
At least 20 suspects had been arrested following the attack, the Egyptian interior ministry said.
Egypt's information minister Osama Hassan Heikal said those who took part in the violence would be sent to an emergency state security court.
Heikal said Egyptian authorities would apply "all articles of the emergency law to ensure safety" following the embassy attack, and respect international conventions regarding the protection of diplomatic missions.
Ambassador Yitzhak Levanon was among 80 embassy staff and their families flown home early Saturday morning. The six guards followed later.
The eputy head of the Israeli mission remained in Egypt to maintain diplomatic contacts with the authorities.
An Israeli government spokesman said on Saturday that Levanon would return to his post "as as soon as the security of the embassy is provided by Egypt."
"It is in the interests of both the Israeli and Egyptian sides to restore relations between the two countries to normal, even if that is not simple," home front defence minister Matan Vilnai told Israeli army radio on Sunday.
"The Egyptian commandos resolved the problem, perhaps in a somewhat belated fashion, but what they did prevented a bloodbath," he said.
Netanyahu himself on Saturday restated his desire to maintain the peace treaty with Egypt, one of only two Arab countries with Jordan to have signed a peace treaty with Israel.
"We are committed to preserving peace with Egypt, which is in the interest of Egypt and Israel," he said in a broadcast address.
The Israeli cabinet was holding its weekly meeting on Sunday, where Netanyahu and his foreign and defence ministers were expected to brief colleagues on the weekend's events.
Meanwhile, Egypt's military ruler, Field Marshall Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, said he could not give testimony on Sunday in the trial of Hosni Mubarak because he had to deal with security issues in the country. Mubarak is charged with conspiring to kill protesters.
Judge Ahmed Refaat has ordered Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi -- who served for 20 years as Mubarak's defence minister before he became the head of the ruling military council in February -- to testify behind closed doors and under a complete news blackout to protect national security.
The move has angered many Egyptians who had been demanding a transparent trial.
The military council has been under pressure from activists who overthrew Mubarak to ensure swift justice for the nearly 850 people killed during the uprising.
"As the former regime was a dictatorship, many of the important and political decisions were taken in secrecy and only among the state's top officials," said Nabil Abdel Fattah, political analyst at Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.
Many opponents of Mubarak, who has attended each session lying on a stretcher after being hospitalised in April, have been frustrated by the slow pace and progress of the trial.
Mubarak, who was driven from office on Feb. 11 after three decades in power, is the first Arab leader to stand trial in person since unrest erupted across the Middle East this year.
Plaintiff lawyer Hassan Abou El Einein called the decision to summon Tantawi "a big surprise that will transform the case and take us into an entirely different field".