Egypt’s Ahmed Aboul Gheit seeks to revalidate his mandate as head of Arab League
The Arab League, the regional organisation grouping the countries of the Arab world, is immersed in the election of the secretary general in which the Egyptian Ahmed Aboul Gheit aspires to revalidate his mandate started in 2016.
Aboul Gheit's re-election is testing the relationship and reconciliation between Egypt and Qatar, after Cairo joined the Saudi-led blockade against Doha in 2017. A tweet by former Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani calling for "pulling the Arab League from its sad and miserable situation and pumping new blood into it" hints at possible Qatari opposition to renewing Abou Geit's term in office.
He called for "new blood, a new spirit, and new policies into the Arab League, that would be based on a philosophy that is detached from the individual policies of the member states of the League, puts Arab public interest first, and makes sure the Arab League is not a place to honour retirees". Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim wrote on Twitter that if “hope materialises in the coming days and weeks towards a serious redirection towards rebuilding the Gulf Cooperation Council in a way that ends the state of division, puts the relationship between its member countries in their proper context and ensures a real Gulf breakthrough, then this will undoubtedly contribute to pulling the Arab League from the sad and miserable situation where it has been for decades.”
Analysts say that such tweets are usually carefully drafted and can be construed as an indication of an official stance, even if the account holder does not seem to hold an official position.
Already in 2016, when Aboul Gheit was elected secretary general, Qatar opposed his candidacy and tried to mobilise several countries to prevent him from obtaining the quorum needed to secure the post, although Saudi Arabia eventually pressured Doha to soften its position.
Egyptian analysts expect Doha to revert to its initial position on Aboul Gheit when Egypt resubmits his candidacy for the position, especially as the recent reconciliation drive between the two countries has not fully dispelled the lingering mistrust between them. Some analysts suggest that Qatar may be using the Arab League issue to put pressure on Egypt in the negotiations between the two countries, specifically with regard to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is considered a terrorist organisation in Egypt and an ally of Qatar.
Political sources confirmed to the Arab Weekly that Cairo has decided to re-nominate Ambassador Ahmed Aboul Gheit for Arab League secretary-general for a second five-year term, as his first term expires in June. Egypt believes Aboul Gheit has a better chance than any other candidate to secure the position, and there is no reason now to put forward other Egyptian candidates.
The same sources added that Egypt intends to contact Arab member states about this matter, and will send official presidential messages in the coming days to secure support for the renewal of Aboul Gheit's term, hoping to obtain clear positive responses before the Arab summit that is to be held in Algeria next March, and hence block any attempts to disrupt the renewal momentum, as happened in the last session.
The situation has remained ambiguous since the Algiers summit, which was postponed last year and then canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Egypt hopes to avoid this kind of situation this time around, perhaps by holding the meeting online, if it is not possible to hold it directly, and hence make a vote on Aboul Gheit's nomination possible.
In the event that it is not possible to approve the candidacy of the the Arab League chief at the summit, Arab leaders could authorise their foreign ministers to hold a meeting at the ministerial level to discuss the matter before the current secretary-general's first term in office expires.
Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit recently called on the European Union to become more involved in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, underlining the EU's humanitarian role.
During a meeting with Susanna Terstal, EU special representative for the Middle East peace process, Aboul Gheit expressed appreciation for the EU’s preliminary stances toward the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but said hope for a two-state solution is diminishing on the ground due to Israel’s increasing settlement activities in the occupied territories in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Aboul Gheit reiterated that he expects a more active role from the international community in reviving the peace process within the UN framework and stressed Arab-European coordination to make the two-state solution the cornerstone of future negotiations leading to a comprehensive settlement of the conflict.
He said he hopes the new US administration would correct the “useless measures and policies” adopted by the previous outfit, and to work on putting the peace process back on the right track with the support of regional and international parties.
During a ministerial virtual meeting of the UN Security Council on peace and security in the Middle East, Aboul Gheit said that the Palestinian cause, if settled, could lead to unprecedented sustainable prosperity and stability for the people in the region, who have suffered from deliberate negligence and the implementation of an irrational approach toward solving their problems.
He added that the Palestinian people have been suffering from extraordinary pressures put on them by the previous US administration. These struggles, he said, reached the humanitarian level, resulting in the US freezing aid to the UN Relief and Works Agency, which is the lifeline for almost 5.5 million Palestinian refugees.
