Cairo keeps the top job
Arab foreign ministers meeting virtually on Sunday agreed to appoint veteran Egyptian diplomat Nabil Fahmy as secretary-general of the 22-member Arab League, according to Egypt’s Foreign Ministry. The timing was, naturally, not ideal. The decision came as the Middle East is deep in a month-long war involving Iran that shows little sign of easing.
Fahmy, who is 75, has been a regular contributor to Independent Arabia since 2019, writing on regional security and international relations.
Taking over in July
His five-year term will begin in July, when he succeeds Ahmed Aboul Gheit, who has led the Arab League since 2016.
Fahmy was the only nominee for the post. That is hardly surprising, given the long-standing practice that Egypt, as host country, nominates the head of the League, which was founded in 1945.
The arrangement has almost always held. The only exception came in 1979, when Tunisian diplomat al-Shazly al-Qalibi was selected after Egypt’s membership was suspended because of its peace treaty with Israel.
Egypt returned to the League in 1989, the headquarters went back to Cairo, and a new Egyptian secretary-general took office in 1990. Bureaucracy, as ever, enjoys continuity.
Diplomatic résumé
Fahmy served as Egypt’s foreign minister from July 2013 to June 2014, during a period of political upheaval following the military removal of an elected Islamist president whose brief rule divided the country.
Before that, he was Egypt’s ambassador to the United States from 1999 to 2008.
He also founded the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at The American University in Cairo, where he now holds the title of dean emeritus.
A family with diplomatic history
Fahmy is the son of Ismail Fahmy, who served as Egypt’s foreign minister from 1973 to 1977. The elder Fahmy resigned in protest after President Anwar Sadat’s landmark visit to Jerusalem, a step that helped pave the way for Egypt to become the first Arab state to establish diplomatic relations with Israel.
