Egypt's Minister of Health and Population Khaled Abdel Ghaffar; the Head of the Executive Office of the Council of Arab Ministers of Health, delivered the opening speech of the 59th session of the council, which is being held in Geneva, Switzerland, coinciding with the convening of the 76th General Assembly of the World Health Organization. During the meeting, the members of the council re-elected the Egyptian Minister of Health to be the Head of the Executive Office of the Council of Arab Ministers of Health for a third round in a row. Abdel Ghaffar indicated that the convening of the session coincides with the convening of the seventy-sixth session of the WHO, this will provide an opportunity to discuss a number of issues that ultimately serve the Arab health systems, as well as the expected unified speech that the Minister of Health of Yemen will deliver to express the view of the Arab group regarding the global health situation. He also affirmed the continued support for the Minister of Health of Algeria, Abdelhak Sayhi, to finalise his efforts in presiding over the activities of the 59th session, after which responsibility would be transferred to Iraq, stressing his confidence in its ability to fully coordinate the preparation for the 60th session, to complete the march towards continuing the implementation of what will come out of the upcoming sessions in terms of decisions. The minister expressed his aspiration to discuss a set of items and topics on the agenda of the meeting, which he sensed their importance by following up on the recommendations issued by the 13th meeting of the Advisory Technical Committee of the Council of Arab Ministers of Health, hoping that the meeting would reach a consensus and approach regarding them.
