Israel's Foreign Ministry has authorized its new ambassador to Egypt to meet the country's up- and-coming Islamist parties, a volte-face to a longstanding policy of shunning contact with the radical groups.

The ministry told Ya'akov Amitai, who arrived in Cairo last month, that it was up to him to decide whether or not to launch dialogue with the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists, Israeli daily Ma'ariv reported Wednesday.

Paul Hirschson, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, confirmed the report.

"Amitai is our envoy to Egypt and as such he has a mandate to speak to everybody, with the assumption that they will be willing to speak to us," Hirschson told Xinhua.

"Egypt is going through a process of elections and choosing its people. It remains to be seen what will come out of this, but we have diplomatic and commercial relations with that country and it' s critical to both of us to nurture these ties," Hirschson said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly underscored Israel's commitment to the 1979 peace treaty with Egypt since a popular revolt ousted longtime leader Hosni Mubarak in February, but until recently ruled out direct dialogue with the country's leading Islamist parties.

Events in Egypt over the past year, however, have forced Netanyahu and other Israeli decision-makers to reconsider. The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party and the Salafi movement's Al-Nour party have won a decisive victory in the first two rounds of parliamentary elections in Egypt last month, capturing about half of the seats so far.

Amitai's predecessor, Yitzhak Levanon, who retired from the diplomatic service in December, claimed Tuesday that Israel may have missed the opportunity to establish a channel of communication with Egypt's previously outlawed hard-core Islamists.

"Shortly after Mubarak's ouster, I recommended to the Foreign Ministry that we try speaking to them and sought its approval. I understood that they are becoming an important political element in Egypt," Levanon told Ma'ariv.

"I thought that at that time, when they were still relatively weak, there's a chance that they will want to conduct indirect dialogue," Levanon said.

A Foreign Ministry source Wednesday dismissed the claims as " misleading reality."

"At that point in time he [Levanon] is talking about, the Muslim Brotherhood was a banned organization in Egypt, one of our most important allies. You can't expect the government of Israel to speak to an organization that is banned by our hosts in any country in the world," the source said.

Meanwhile, a top Muslim Brotherhood official said that the peace accord with Israel was not binding and that his movement would work to amend it.

"We did not sign the peace treaty and are allowed to bring it to the Egyptian people to decide its fate," Dr. Rashad Bayumi, the Brotherhood's number two, said in an interview with the London- based Al Hayat earlier this week, hinting at a national referendum.

Bayumi added that "legal steps" will be taken to "introduce changes" to the treaty, the first to be signed between Israel and an Arab country.

"[The Muslim Brotherhood] would never recognize Israel, no matter what. It is a hostile, criminal and abusive entity," he said.

The announcement came just days before the last round in Egypt' s first parliamentary elections was launched Tuesday. Other leading figures in the Brotherhood, however, have pledged to maintain the peace with Israel.