Egypt wants to get a second term in office as Arab League secretary-general but Dina Ezzat reports that not all parties are in favour Putting an end to a long period of speculation on whether Arab League Secretary-General will keep his post for five more years, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit officially declared that President Hosni Mubarak is re-nominating Moussa as Egypt's candidate for a second term in office starting mid-May. The proposal, Abul-Gheit told reporters on Monday, had already been sent to the other 21 member states of the Arab League. "The president had already discussed this matter with Arab leaders and sent them relevant messages, and they are expressing support," Abul-Gheit stated. Moussa, Egypt's foreign minister from 1991 to 2001, has not made an official announcement regarding the nomination; however, informed Egyptian and other Arab diplomatic sources say he has accepted a second term in office despite previously expressing reluctance. This was due to his understanding that at this point in time he seems to be the only Egyptian candidate who can hold on to the post which has been traditionally held by prominent Egyptian diplomatic and political figures except during the decade following Egypt's expulsion from the organisation after the unilateral peace deal that former President Anwar El-Sadat signed with Israel. As a result, Tunisian Al-Chadli Al-Qolaybi became Arab League head from 1979 to 1990 and the headquarters of the Arab League was moved from Cairo to Tunisia during most of that period. While the charter of the over 60- year-old Arab League makes no mention about the nationality of the secretary-general, most Arab diplomatic quarters accept that the top post of the pan-Arab organisation is by tacit agreement reserved for where its headquarters is based, which is now Cairo. Last year, Abel-Aziz Belkhadem, Algeria's political advisor to the country's president, suggested that the post rotate among Arab countries. Belkhadem's remarks were not well received in Cairo. "We have enormous respect for Algeria and for President Abel-Aziz Boutaflika but with all due respect, Egypt remains the leading Arab state," an Egyptian diplomat stated at the time. And according to remarks made by a senior state official then: "Egypt will not relinquish the post. Even if Moussa is frustrated with the attacks he has been subjected to by some Arab countries, he still has a role to fulfill as an Egyptian nominee." Since his trip to Baghdad in January 2002 in a last ditch diplomatic mission to persuade the regime of Saddam Hussein to honour its international arms inspection commitments to avert an Iraqi showdown with the US, Moussa has had problems with Kuwaiti officials who chose to portray his diplomatic mission as an attempt to protect Saddam's regime that Kuwaitis have, to a man, despised since his invasion of their country in August 1990. During the early days of the war on Iraq which started on 20 March 2003, Kuwaiti diplomats in Cairo were unsuccessful in trying to prevent Moussa from speaking out against the war. Moussa was then criticised in diplomatic and intellectual quarters in Kuwait for allegedly representing the Egyptian stand in opposing the war against Iraq. At the time Kuwaiti diplomats based in Cairo suggested it was about time that the post of secretary-general go to a diplomat from the Arab Gulf states. Such statements were shrugged off by Cairo as "out of the question for the next few decades". Several commentators and diplomats agree that maintaining a grip on the job of secretary- general is a crucial part of Egypt being able to underline its Arab leadership even though during the last few years, increasing criticism over Egypt's role in the Arab world has been surfacing. Critics argue that all but isolated from North Africa and the Gulf -- where it had historically played an integral part -- Egypt is now also losing its traditional influence in Al-Mashreq Al-Arabi and even in Sudan. Egypt, they say, still sees itself as the uncontested Arab leader. The question though is whether it is being perceived as such by other Arab countries. Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly, an informed Egyptian diplomat argued that the image is not laid out in strict black and white. It is true, he said, that Cairo's role in Iraq has been dramatically marginalised since the invasion, in favour of the aggressively growing Iranian intervention, that its intervention in the deteriorating Syrian-Lebanese relationship is not particularly welcomed and that its influence in Sudan is now being lost "partially but not fully" to Libya. However, the source firmly added, "it is also true that when Arab countries want something done at the international level they have to have Egypt's support for it to fly, and that when all is said and done it is Egypt that primarily speaks up to reflect Arab concerns." As such, the source added, and in view of Egypt's historic role and geographic weight, "its hold of the post of Arab League secretary-general should be uncontested."
