Israel has made a personal appeal to President John Mahama to use his office as chair of the West African body, Ecowas, to help\u00a0 regularize the country’s\u00a0status as observers at the AU.<\/p>\n
The Israeli foreign minister, Mr Avigdor \u00a0Leiberman, made the appeal when he paid a courtesy call on President Mahama at the Flagstaff house in Accra.<\/p>\n
\u201cI request that we are made to come back to the African Union as observers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems we\u2019ve lost that status, but with you as ECOWAS chair we hope you support our request\u201d, Mr Avigdor Lieberman told President Mahama.<\/p>\n
According to him, although they had maintained their status as observers in AU meetings in previously, they have not been invited to meetings in recent years; a situation he described as worrying.<\/p>\n
He called on President Mahama to\u00a0help return to the status quo, which would see them resume their role in AU meetings as observers.<\/p>\n
He was optimistic that this would help foster a much stronger relationship between Israel and Africa as a whole.<\/p>\n
Mr Lieberman is in the country as head of a delegation made up of businessmen and security experts, to interact with their Ghanaian counterparts to explore areas of cooperation.<\/p>\n
He was optimistic that Israeli investors will take advantage of the conducive business climate in Ghana and increase their investments.<\/p>\n
Briefing the President earlier, Ghana\u2019s Foreign Minister, Hannah Tetteh, \u00a0indicated that the security experts who were part of the delegation had already met with some Ghanaian security chiefs to\u00a0determine areas of cooperation.<\/p>\n
Mr Lieberman had earlier met with Ghanaian and Israeli businessmen to discuss ways of furthering common interest in both countries.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, President Mahama promised to intervene and assured Mr Lieberman that their status as observers during African Union meetings had not been revoked\u00a0 stating that he would work to ensure that they continue in this capacity.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Richard Mensah\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Israel has made a personal appeal to President John Mahama to use his office as chair of the West African body, Ecowas, to help\u00a0 regularize the country’s\u00a0status as observers at the AU. The Israeli foreign minister, Mr Avigdor \u00a0Leiberman, made the appeal when he paid a courtesy call on President Mahama at the Flagstaff house […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n