Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi sent messages to Arab leaders expressing Cairo's intention to re-nominate Ahmed Abul-Gheit as secretary-general of the Arab League (AL) for a second five-year term, Presidential Spokesperson Bassam Rady said in a statement on Saturday. El-Sisi is looking forward to the Arab leaders' support for Abul-Gheit's nomination, in accordance with the provisions of the AL's Charter, Rady added. Aboul-Gheit, 78, will end his five-year tenure in June 2021. He succeeded former Egyptian AL secretary-general Nabil El-Arabi. Abul-Gheit, a career diplomat, served as foreign minister for Egypt from July 2004 to March 2011, Since the establishment of the Arab League in 1945, the position of secretary-general has been held by Egypt, except for the period from 1979 to 1990. The presidential spokesperson said that the re-nomination of Abul-Gheit “comes within the framework of the great interest that Egypt, under the leadership of President El-Sisi, attaches to the work of the AL.” It also comes within the framework of El-Sisi's keenness to provide all possible support to the AL where Arabs' aspirations are embodied for a coordinated collective action aimed at serving Arab peoples and interests, Rady said. This, he added, was what characterised the role of the secretary-general during his first term of an aware and wise management for the rudder of the joint Arab action system during a challenging phase in the Arab region. In his five-year tenure, Abul-Gheit grappled with multiple challenges facing the Arab world, exerting efforts to reach an Arab consensus to end civil wars in Yemen, Libya and Syria; confronting Turkish aggression in the area; as well as pushing an agenda to reach a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
