Egyptian foreign minister elected Arab League chief

AFP/Cairo

Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil al-Arabi talks with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister HE Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor al-Thani before a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo yesterday

Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil al-Arabi was unanimously elected Arab League chief yesterday, embarking on a challenging task as political upheaval sweeps the region. The surprise announcement of his candidacy came after Egypt withdrew diplomat Mustafa al-Fikki from the race just moments before voting for the head of the 22-member body was due to start. Arabi’s nomination had been quickly followed by the news that Qatar withdrew its candidate—and the only other contender—Abdulrahman al-Attiyah, a former Gulf Co-operation Council secretary general, from the race. Arabi stood up to salute the delegates who gave him a standing ovation after Omani Foreign Minister Yousef bin Alawi, who chaired the session, presented him as the new secretary general. “The Arab world is going through many crises. We must all stand together and find solutions,” Arabi said, admitting he did not have a speech prepared. Fikki, a diplomat under the regime of Egypt’s ousted president Hosni Mubarak, had faced strong opposition both on the Egyptian street and from within the League, sources said. Protesters who had gathered outside the League’s headquarters in Cairo to denounce Fikki’s nomination broke out into cheers when Arabi’s name was announced. Arabi “does not have an easy job. We must all stand together and support him in his new job,” Oman’s bin Alawi said. And in a sign of the popularity of the choice of Arabi, he said “the Arab world is in good hands,” to yet another round of applause. “We are full of hope that the Arab League under his leadership will open new horizons for Arab co-operation,” said Syria’s ambassador to the Arab League, Yousef al-Ahmed. Arab foreign ministers had gathered in Cairo earlier yesterday to begin discussions on who would succeed Amr Moussa as the secretary general of the pan-Arab organisation. Moussa, whose last day at work is today, has decided to contest the top job in his native Egypt, in the first presidential election since Mubarak was overthrown in February following 18 days of popular protests. The new Arab League chief will take on the job after two uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt toppled long-time presidents, and as deadly protests sweep the region and a war rages in Libya. “There is a general consensus among foreign ministers and permanent representatives for Arabi to take over the post of secretary general of the Arab League,” Egypt’s ambassador to the Arab body, Afifi Abdel Wahab, told reporters ahead of the vote. Arabi, a respected veteran diplomat, had the challenging task of charting a new foreign policy for Egypt after Mubarak’s ouster. A US-educated international law expert, he was one of 15 judges at the UN International Court of Justice from 2001 to 2006, sitting on several international arbitration panels.