Arab foreign ministers in Cairo to pick new Arab League chief

 Arab foreign ministers began converging on Cairo on Thursday to take part in the extraordinary session of the Arab League council dedicated to name a new secretary general in succession of Nabil el Arabi whose term will end on June 30.

Egypt officially nominated former foreign minister Ahmed Abul Gheit for the post.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel el Jubeir, Qatari Foreign Minister Mohamed ben Abdel Rahman el Thani and UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash have already arrived in Cairo for the meeting. 

In February, Arabi, 80, announced that he would not seek a second term after his current one ends in July. Traditionally, the secretary general of the pan-Arab body can have two terms in office.

Abul Gheit was the last foreign minister under Hosni Mubarak, who was overthrown in a popular 18-day uprising in early 2011. He was appointed as foreign minister in 2004 and continued holding the post till the cabinet was forced to resign under pressure from angry demonstrators in the wake of the January Revolution of 2011.

After Mubarak's ouster, the veteran diplomat, had stayed away from politics and devoted his time to writing. He broke his silence when he publicly supported his close cabinet associate and Mubarak’s last prime minister Ahmed Shafik against Islamist Mohamed Morsi during the 2012 presidential elections.

Abul Gheit joined the Egyptian foreign ministry in 1967. He held several diplomatic posts, including in Rome, Moscow and New York.

In 1999, he was appointed Egypt's permanent representative to the United Nations.

So far, Egypt is the only Arab country that has presented a nominee to head the pan-Arab body.

Since it was founded in 1945, Egypt has been holding the secreatriat of the Arab League except when the headquarters was moved to Tunisia 1979.

Source: MENA