The Arab League will choose a new Secretary-General tomorrow. For the first time in the league's history, two candidates will compete for the position, left open by the resignation of Egyptian Amr Moussa, who officially ends his second term tomorrow. The two candidates are Mustafa el-Fiqi of Egypt and Abdul Rahman al-Attiyah of Qatar. In another first, the Arab foreign ministers will choose the next Arab League head rather than the heads of state. The league charter says the process requires “the presence of kings and presidents,” but for this summit the Arab League has obtained mandates from members' heads of state saying their delegations can choose the Secretary General. So far, there is no consensus on a candidate. Mustafa al-Fiqi was born in November 1944. He is an Egyptian politician and holds a BA in Economics and Political Science from Cairo University and a doctorate degree from the University of London. He joined the Foreign Service and worked in Egypt's embassies in Britain and India, and as Egypt's delegate to international organizations in Vienna. He has also been head of the Foreign Relations Committee in the Shura Council, the upper house of the Egyptian parliament. Abdel Rahman al-Attiyah, born 1950, holds a BA in political science and geography from the University of Miami, Florida. He held a number of diplomatic posts and was the Permanent Representative of Qatar to the United Nations until he was assigned the General Secretariat of the Gulf States Cooperation Council. At the end of his mandate he was nominated by Qatar to the Arab League.
