Ex-Mubarak minister named new Arab League chief

A former ambassador to the UN, Ahmed Aboul Gheit is seen by some as hope for turbulent Middle East

By AP and AFP 10 March 2016, 10:00 pm

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In this Thursday, October 28, 2010 file photo, then Egyptian foreign minister and current Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit speaks during a joint press conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed, File)

CAIRO — Veteran Egyptian diplomat Ahmed Aboul Gheit was named Thursday as the new secretary general of the Cairo-based Arab League, the 22-member bloc announced in a statement.

Aboul Gheit, a former ambassador to the United Nations and Egypt’s last foreign minister under ousted president Hosni Mubarak, won the backing of League members despite a last-minute objection from Qatar.

He was the only nominee for the post. It is a long-held protocol that Egypt as host of the Arab League traditionally nominates the league chief.

The vote comes at a critical time for the region, with Syria marking the fifth anniversary of the start of its devastating civil war, regional proxy wars between Saudi Arabia and Iran on full display, and the battle against the Islamic State raging in several Arab countries.

Divisions have weakened the Arab League since the 2011 uprisings that toppled three longtime autocratic rulers but also sparked three civil wars.

Then-foreign ministers Tzipi Livni, of Israel, Abdul-Ilah Khatib, of Jordan, and Ahmed Aboul Gheit, of Egypt, meet in Jerusalem, July 25 2007. (photo credit: Orel Cohen/Flash90)

But despite its waning influence, a strong leadership might help shore up Saudi-led Sunni front against Iran at a time of ongoing military involvement by the Saudis and other Gulf Arab countries in Yemen and Syria.

Past league chairmen have included pan-Arab nationalists such as Amr Moussa and the outgoing head, Nabil Elaraby. Aboul Gheit appears to mark a shift as he is known to be a pragmatic diplomat with strong enmity for political Islam factions like the Muslim Brotherhood, the parent organization of Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.

Aboul Gheit was replaced as foreign minister after Mubarak’s removal and kept a low profile while many of the former president’s loyalists were sent to courts for trials in corruption-linked cases.