Israel’s Ambassador to Senegal Paul Hirschson extended the best wishes of the Jewish State last week for an “Eid Mubarak” on the occasion of the Islamic Festival of the Sacrifice, Eid al-Adha, in a unique fashion.

“Khalif Ba helped us give 70 sheep to needy families for Tabaski, (Eid al Adha), Senegal’s most revered holiday,” Hirschson said in a post on the Embassy’s Facebook page. “We also gave three sheep each to six orphanages in Dakar.

“Penda Mbow, one of the most significant intellectuals in Senegal, joined the group as a representative of the First Lady,” he added.

Israel saves and enhances lives daily in what may be one of the least developed parts of the world, he told JewishPress.com in a separate email exchange.

Trade, investment and joint ventures are up, with Israeli companies prospering while generating employment and skills locally.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shook hands Wednesday with Israel’s female interim head of its embassy in Ankara, Shani Cooper, who has been appointed to field the office until permanent ambassadors are appointed by the two countries.

The ceremonial handshake was part of a tradition carried out with the diplomatic corps each year to celebrate Turkey’s Victory Day on August 30.

This time, Erdogan specifically asked to welcome Cooper — a move seen by analysts as an effort to send a positive message to Israelis who are closely watching the Turkish leader in the wake of a six-year break in relations between the two countries.

Cooper responded warmly to the request, expressing Israel’s support for Erdogan and the Turkish nation.

Erdogan requested an interpreter, through whose services he responded with positive remarks on the diplomatic relations between the two countries. He wished Cooper good luck on her position as well.

Earlier in the day, Erdogan’s office sent the approved, signed agreement with Israel to the office of Turkey’s prime minister. Simultaneously in Israel, the government cabinet ministers also issued their final approval on the document as well.

The agreement is considered to be officially ratified and becomes effective after seven days if no objections are filed on either side.

The U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv has opened a Book of Condolence for people to sign in honor of the victims of the Orlando massacre.

The Book was placed on the sidewalk Monday (June 13) in front of the Embassy at 73 HaYarkon Street, and is available for signing from 2 pm to 7 pm local time.

It will also be available for guests to pay their respects and enter a thought or memory on Tuesday, June 14 through Thursday, June 16 from 10 am to 12 noon, and 2 pm to 4 pm.

May the memories of those who fell as victims of terror be for a blessing.

Kickboxing champion Abderrahim Moutaharrik, 28, who was arrested on Thursday with his wife, Salma Bencharki, 26, in Lombardy, northern Italy, for allegedly planning to flee Italy for Syria with their two children, ages 2 and 4, is insisting they were only planning to go to Syria to help the suffering children there, La Repubblica reported.

Moutaharrik also denied that he was planning an attack the Vatican and the Israeli embassy in Rome.

The couple was arrested as part of an investigation conducted by the Italian anti-terror squad and the Special Operations Group fighting organized crime. Police released pictures of Moutaharrik in his kickboxing kit and a keffiyeh, and a black shirt styled after the ISIS flag.

Talk about the fashion police…

“I saw images of children being tortured and I wanted to go to Syria to help the people and not to enrol with ISIS,” Moroccan born Moutaharrik told a magistrates at Milan’s San Vittore prison.

The couple’s lawyer told reporters his clients had “told the magistrates that they grew up in Italy and would never want to seriously hurt anyone.”

Did we say the accused is a kickboxing champion?

Arrest warrants were also issued Thursday against Alice (Aisha) Brignoli, 39, and her husband, Mohamed Koraich, who have allegedly left Italy a year ago to join ISIS in Syria. Koraich’s sister, Wafa, was arrested in the town of town of Baveno, Piedmont, and Abderrahmane Khachia, 23, a Moroccan, was arrested in Varese, Lombardy. Police say Khachia’s brother was a jihadist who died in Syria.

(JNi.media) A severe diplomatic crisis is brewing between Israel and El Salvador, as the latter is not happy with the former’s decision to close down its embassy in San Salvador as part of a decision to eliminate five embassies altogether as a belt-tightening measure, Ynet reported. El Salvador is considering a retaliatory step — moving its embassy from Herzliya Pituach to Ramallah, inside the Palestinian Authority. This may be the most creative—and effective—diplomatic maneuver against the Jewish State this year. It also marks yet another Latin American country with whom the Netanyahu government is feuding (Brazil is another).

The Salvadoran foreign ministry sent Israel a stern message saying the Central American republic was shocked, dismayed and surprised by the proposed step. They were particularly hurt by the fact that they found out about it in the press, rather than receive a proper advance notice through diplomatic channels. There’s more: El Salvador had apparently been so interested in improving relations with Israel, it sent a senior official, the foreign office’s former director Werner Matias Romero, to serve as its new ambassador to Israel to enhance the friendship and cooperation.

The insulted Romero said he was still hoping Israel would reverse the decision, warning that otherwise it would “open a Pandora’s box,” adding, “What Israel has done is bite the friendly hand we extended to her. That’s not a way to treat your friends. This could definitely bolster the element in El Salvador who are opposed to our ties with Israel.”

Romero also reminded his hosts of the fact that El Salvador voted in favor of the 1947 UN Partition Plan; José Castellanos, a Salvadoran diplomat, saved thousands of Jews during the Holocaust—and was recognized by Yad Vashem, and El Salvador even kept its embassy in Jerusalem for a couple of decades—until the second Lebanon war.

According to Ynet, it costs Israel about a million dollars a year to keep each embassy open. This may turn out to be an acceptable cost of doing business, when the alternative is seeing the Salvadoran embassy be consolidated with the Cairo mission, or, even worse, reopening in Ramallah, forcing Israeli visa seekers to armor their cars first before applying.

Israel is also planning to close its embassy in Minsk, to be followed by the closing down of the Belarus mission to Tel Aviv. Now, that’s something that would not have happened while Minister Avigdor Lieberman was in charge.

Several Gulf Arab nations and at least one African country have downgraded their ties with Shi’ite Iran after Saudi Arabia cut its ties with the Islamic Republic, with the possibility that more may follow.

The move came after a Tehran mob stormed and torched the Saudi Arabian embassy and consulate buildings. In response, Saudi Arabia suspended all air traffic between the two countries. A letter was also immediately sent to the United Nations Security Council, accusing Iran of failing to protect the Saudi embassy.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Jaberi Ansari denied the charges, saying no Saudi diplomats were harmed in the incident; he added that none were even present during the attack.

He neatly sidestepped the fact that the building was torched and that all the interior furnishings were completely smashed by the mob that stormed the building. Instead, Ansari claimed Saudi Arabia was “looking for some excuses to pursue its own unwise policies to further tension in the region.”

But Iranian security personnel did nothing to stop the destruction of the embassy until after the embassy offices were completely smashed; at which point, authorities called for “calm.”

The destruction of the diplomatic properties came in response to Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent Shi’ite cleric on Saturday. Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr was one of a total of 47 who were executed on charges of terrorism.

Nimr was known as a vocal activist who opposed the Saudi regime, and who led a vigorous Shi’ite Muslim minority movement in Sunni Muslim-led Saudi Arabia. Iran threatened at the time of the execution that Saudi Arabia would “pay dearly” for Nimr’s death.

By Sunday, Saudi Arabia had cut its ties with Iran and expelled the ambassador, giving him 48 hours to leave the kingdom.

The United Arab Emirates and the island nation of Bahrain – Sunni-ruled monarchies – also both notified Iranian diplomats they had 48 hours to leave the kingdom.

The UAE recalled its ambassador from Tehran and announced it would reduce the number of diplomats stationed in Iran, according to the WAM state news agency. The government said in a statement, the UAE “has taken this exceptional step in light of Iran’s ongoing interference in internal [Gulf Cooperation Council] and Arab affairs that has recently reached unprecedented levels.”

Iran was was also accused by Bahraini officials of “increasing, flagrant and dangerous meddling” in the affairs of Gulf states – again, not the first time Iran has been accused of such activity. A similar charge was leveled against the Islamic Republic during the Arab Spring revolutions, when Tehran was accused of stirring uprisings among Shi’ite populations within the Sunni-led kingdoms and emirates. Bahrain also severed its ties with Iran.

Likewise, the majority Sunni Muslim nation of Sudan also expressed its disapproval of the Iranian attack on the Saudi embassy, calling the mob action “barbaric”. As with Bahrain and the UAE, Sudan also severed its diplomatic ties with Iran, expelling the Iranian ambassador and the entire Iranian diplomatic mission from the country. Sudan also recalled its own ambassador from Tehran.

Russia and China have now both released statements calling for “restraint” on the parts of Iran and Saudi Arabia. Both have expressed concern about escalation of tensions in the region, and have asked both parties to work together to “safeguard the region’s peace and stability.”

A tidal wave of Iranian fury over Saudi Arabia’s execution of a Shi’ite cleric crashed over Riyadh’s embassy in Tehran early Sunday.

Raging Iranian demonstrators stormed the embassy, smashing furniture and torching the building, Iran’s ISNA news agency reported.

The fury came in response to Saudi Arabia’s execution of prominent Shi’ite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr on Saturday. The cleric was executed together with 46 other suspects accused of terrorism, mostly alleged members of Al Qaeda.

Iran warned the cleric’s execution would “cost Saudi Arabia dearly.” The Revolutionary Guards Corps vowed “harsh revenge” against “this pro-terrorist, Islamic regime” for its execution of Nimr.

The cleric was admired in Iran as a champion of Shi’ite minority rights. Nimr was a vocal critic of the Saudi dynasty and was perceived as a leader of the younger generation of Shi’ite activists who had lost patience with older leaders.

In addition to Nimr, three other Shi’ites were also executed Saturday; all four were accused of involvement in shooting police.

Tehran police chief Hossein Sajedinia was later quoted by ISNA as saying “unruly elements” were arrested for attacking the embassy with firebombs and rocks, but there was no confirmation of the claim.

Iran’s foreign ministry also issued a statement calling for calm after photos were posted on Twitter showing parts of the interior of the embassy completely destroyed. The ministry urged “protesters” to “respect” the premises, but it wasn’t clear how much was left to “respect.”