CAIRO — Arab foreign ministers on Sunday appointed veteran Egyptian diplomat Nabil Fahmy as the head of the 22-member Arab League, at a time the Middle East is immersed in a regional war that shows no sign of abating.
Fahmy, a former Egyptian foreign minister, won the support of the Arab ministers in a virtual meeting, according to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.
Fahmy’s five-year term as secretary-general will start in July, succeeding Ahmed Aboul Gheit, who has served as Arab League chief since 2016.
His appointment came as Iran’s Arab neighbors are reeling from attacks by Tehran and its proxies in response to massive airstrikes launched by the U.S. and Israel since Feb. 28.
Fahmy was the only nominee for the post. It has been a tradition since the Arab League’s founding in 1945 that Egypt, as host of the organization, nominate its leader. The only time a non-Egyptian — Tunisian diplomat Chedli Klibi — was appointed to the post was in 1979, after Egypt’s membership was suspended after its peace treaty with Israel.
Egypt rejoined in 1989, with the headquarters of the Arab League returning to Cairo and a new Egyptian secretary-general appointed in 1990.
Fahmy, 75, served as Egypt’s top diplomat from July 2013 to June 2014, when Cairo was in turmoil after the military overthrow of an elected Islamist president whose one-year rule proved divisive. Fahmy 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, and he currently serves as the school’s dean emeritus.
He is the son of Ismail Fahmy, the Egyptian foreign minister from 1973 to 1977. The elder Fahmy had resigned in protest of President Anwar Sadat’s historic visit to Jerusalem, which paved the way for Egypt becoming the first Arab country to establish diplomatic ties with Israel.
Magdy writes for the Associated Press.
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