CAIRO: Mustafa el-Feki, the Egyptian candidate for the post of Secretary General of the League of Arab States, has denied the authenticity of a photograph that is now circulating on number of Facebook pages. The photo conceived el-Feki as kissing the former Housing Minister Ahmed al-Maghrabi's hand. El-Feki explained that this image had been captured by a photojournalist at Rose al-Youssef newspaper, at the instigation of its former editor-in-chief in order to tarnish his reputation in front of Egyptian public opinion on the background of the differences that were between him and the leaders of the disbanded National Democratic Party and his views on the policies of the party at the time, according to el-Feki's office. El-Feki stressed that he has published a denial of this image on the front page of the al-Masry al-Youm newspaper on the day following the publication under the title “in his life el-Feki never kissed except the hands of his parents.” “Al-Maghrabi was talking to Yousry el-Sheikh and el-Feki was listening with concentration,” declared the office. “But the photographer put a comment on the photo that showed el-Feki as if kissing the hand of the former minister, and this did not happen.” According to el-Feki's office's statement, when el-Maghrabi saw the photo he spoke to el-Feki saying “your value and social position would make me kiss you and not vice versa.” El-Feki stressed that at this period he is facing a campaign of slander and lies because of the determination of the new Secretary General of the League of Arab States. The Egyptian candidate for the post hoped to reach an Arab consensus to succeed current Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa. After returning to Egypt from his tour of the Maghreb countries, el-Feki said that in many occasions he showed his great appreciation of the State of Qatar and the prince in particular. In addition, he is the one who wrote an article about the Emir of Qatar two years ago which was not liked in Egypt at the time, but preferred to give his opinion when he discovered that Qatar still supports the reform project of the Egyptian railway despite strong political differences with the regime in Egypt at the time, according to el-Feki's office. It is worth mentioning that Qatar nominated Abd el-Rahman al-Attia to compete with el-Feki on the post of the Secretary General. He also said that he holds all “manifestations of love, brotherhood and appreciation for the Sudanese people and their government.” El-Feki deplored the poor transfer of his interventions regarding Sudan in one of the lectures in Cairo last December. During his meetings with foreign ministers of the Maghreb countries, which included the States Morocco, Mauritania, Algeria and Tunisia, they mentioned to him explicitly their support for Egypt, while some of them wished the Arabs to agree on one candidate for the post without resorting to voting in order to avoid embarrassment among the Arab brothers or create undue differences. El-Feki revealed that during his tour in these countries, he felt the estimation of these countries to Egypt and its revolution. El-Feki also started a new round in the Levant, Jordan, then Syria and then Lebanon, where he is scheduled to meet with foreign ministers and senior state officials. He declared that he will conclude his tour in the “big Arab country, Saudi Arabia”, which is always supportive of the Egyptian people, to meet his Highness Prince Saud al-Faisal, Foreign Minister in al-Riyadh. The Egyptian candidate for the post met at his office, Saturday April 30, the Permanent Representatives of each of the Comoros and Somalia. El-Feki said after the meeting that the talks revolved around the general situation and the emerging African affairs, stressing that the ambassadors expressed their appreciation for Egypt's role in leading the Arab and Africa. Arab foreign ministers will meet soon in Cairo to try to resolve the issue of choosing the new Secretary General of the Arab League. BM
