NEW YORK: The new Permanent Representative of Egypt to the United Nations, Mootaz Ahmadein Khalil, presented his credentials on Wednesday to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Until his appointment, Khalil served, in Cairo, as Egypt's Acting Assistant Foreign Minister for Multilateral Economic Affairs and International Cooperation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from January to June 2011. He was Deputy Assistant Foreign Minister for Environment and Sustainable Development, from April 2009 to July 2011. He had served as Director of Environment and Sustainable Development Affairs, also in the Foreign Ministry in Cairo, from 2001 to 2005. Khalil was Deputy Assistant Foreign Minister for the Strategic and Security Organizations, from December 2008 to April 2009, and earlier, Director for the Office of the Assistant Foreign Minister for Multilateral Affairs, from 2000 to 2001. He was Deputy Chief of Mission and Deputy Permanent Representative of Egypt, in the country's Embassy and Mission to the International Organizations in Vienna, Austria from 2005 to 2008. The new envoy held several other positions, including that of First Secretary at the Egyptian Embassy in Rabat (1998-2000); Acting Director and Deputy Director of UN Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cairo, (1994-1997); Second Secretary, Permanent Mission of Egypt to the United Nations, New York, (1990-1994) and; Third Secretary, Department of Multilateral Organizations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cairo, (1988-1990). In his official capacity, Khalil participated in several meetings, including, in October 2011, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Meeting on Climate Change and the Road to Rio for Arab Negotiators, and the high-level segments of the eighteenth and nineteenth sessions of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, respectively, in April 2010 and May 2011. Before joining Egypt's Foreign Affairs Ministry in 1986, he obtained his Masters Degree (Politics of the Middle East), from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, in 1988; and his Bachelor of Science degree (Political Science, Faculty of Economics and Political Science), from Cairo University, in 1985. Born in Beirut on September 17, 1964, Khalil, in addition to his native Arabic, also speaks English, French and Spanish.
