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DR Congo leader to appoint Israel envoy, vows closer ties
WASHINGTON, March 2, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – The leader of the Democratic
Republic of Congo said Sunday he would appoint an ambassador to Israel after
a two-decade gap, inviting the Jewish state to build a close relationship.
Addressing the influential pro-Israel US lobby AIPAC, President Felix
Tshisekedi said he was inspired in part by his Christian faith and thanked US
evangelicals for supporting Israel.
“After more than 20 years of inadequate representation, I will name an
ambassador in the coming days,” he said, to applause, at the annual
conference in Washington.
“I invite Israel to raise its diplomatic and economic presence in my
country as high as relations can go between our two states and peoples,” said
Tshisekedi, who took office last year.
“This nation is a source of inspiration,” he said. “It teaches us what man
can do in such a short span of time when he has drive, resilience and,
especially, divine grace and favor.”
Tshisekedi said the ambassador would be posted in Tel Aviv but that a
commercial section would be based in Jerusalem — which Israel considers its
undivided capital but where only the United States and Guatemala have moved
their embassies.
Tshisekedi said he would visit Israel this year and was especially
interested in science, technology and agriculture investment in his resource-
rich but conflict-scarred nation.
Israel had a warm relationship with Mobutu Sese Seko, the US-allied
dictator of the nation formerly known as Zaire, who in 1982 broke with most
African states to restore relations with the Jewish state.
But relations stagnated as DR Congo descended into war and the last
Israeli ambassador in Kinshasa left in 2003, according to the Israeli foreign
ministry.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been seeking to normalize
the Jewish state’s relationships around the world.
Most post-independence African nations distrusted Israel out of solidarity
with its Arab rivals and due to Israel’s alliance with apartheid South
Africa.
BSS/AFP/MSY/0843 hrs