Arab foreign ministers, authorized by their leaders, will hold an urgent meeting on Thursday at the Arab League to select the new secretary general. They will also decide a new date for the Arab League summit thjat had been slated for 10 May in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. Ministers will also discuss the situations in Syria, Yemen and Libya. Ambassador Afifi Abdel Wahab, Egypt's permanent delegate to the Arab League, said Arab foreign ministers will choose because the Arab summit will not be held at the scheduled time, and current chief Amr Moussa's term ends on 15 May. The League demanded that the ministers be authorized by their leaders to vote for the new chief, Abdel Wahab told Al-Masry Al-Youm. He said that normally Arab leaders make the selection, so selection by foreign ministers or heads of delegations is an exceptional decision that requires authorization. Rivalry over the post is still confined to Egypt's Mostafa al-Fiqqi and Qatar's Abdulrahman al-Attiyah. Iraq's Permanent Ambassador to the Arab League Qais al-Azzawi said that Iraq still doesn't see an urgent need to hold the Arab summit in Baghdad on its scheduled date. Azzawi told Al-Masry Al-Youm that canceling the summit has not been proposed and that it would contradict the Arab League charter, which states summits shouldn't be canceled as long as the League exists. Translated from the Arabic Edition
