Deputy Minister Kara tells Post if security situation can be calmed, “tourism with Egypt should flourish once again.”
Deputy Foreign Minister and acting Regional Cooperation Minister Ayoub Kara (Likud) met with an Egyptian diplomat at the Taba border crossing with Egypt on Tuesday in order to discuss ways to return the strong tourist ties between the two countries.
“We will defeat terrorism, which cannot be allowed to interfere with our daily lives,” Kara told The Jerusalem Post. If Egypt is able to defeat terrorism in Sinai, and Israel in the Gaza Strip, “then tourism with Egypt should flourish once again,” he said.
The meeting also was meant to strengthen relations between the two countries.
The tourism sector has suffered since the overthrow of former president Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and the ongoing Islamist insurgency that is focused in the Sinai Peninsula.
Kara also met with Yitzhak Hai, manager of the Taba border crossing.
Separately, Kara met with representatives of the Eilat airport, the Wadi Araba border crossing with Jordan, and the manager of the Taba border crossing with Egypt about progress of the plan to bring Jordanian day workers to work in hotels in Eilat.