Eritrea to open an embassy in Israel

JERUSALEM, June 21 (UPI) -- Eritrea intends to open an embassy in Israel, the Israeli foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, said Monday.

Shalom told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee he has received an official message from the Eritrean government announcing its intent to open the embassy.

Israel opened an embassy in Eritrea in 1993, two years after that country achieved independence from Ethiopia.

Half its citizens are Muslim.

This marks the first embassy to be opened in Israel in more than four years, the foreign ministry said.