Egypt FM to head for Paris tomorrow

Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry will fly to Paris on Thursday to hold a meeting with the member states of the executive council of the UNESCO to back Moshira Khattab's nomination for the international organization's top post.

The visit comes as part of the Foreign Ministry's intensive efforts to back Khattab's bid ahead of Monday voting, ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said.

Shoukry will also meet with the UNESCO's permanent delegates who are representing the African Group representatives and the head of the African Union Commission to crystallize a unified African stance towards Khattab's nomination.

The UNESCO headquarters in Paris on October 9 will see elections for the organization’s top post of director-general, with eight candidates competing to succeed the Bulgarian Irina Bokova after the withdrawal of the Guatemalan candidate.

The eight candidates are: Moshira Khattab from Egypt, Vera El Khoury from Lebanon, Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al Kawari from Qatar, the French Audrey Azoulay, Chinese Qian Tang, Polad Bülbüloğlu of Azerbaijan, Pham Sanh Chau of Vietnam, and Saleh Mahdi Al Hasnawi of Iraq.

Fifty-eight members of the UNESCO Executive Council will hold meetings from October 4 to 18 at the UNESCO headquarters under the chairmanship of Michael Worbs, Germany’s ambassador to UNESCO, to choose the candidate.

The person to be nominated by the Executive Board will be chosen by secret ballot, during a vote that will take place during the board’s 202nd session in October 2017.

Subsequently, the Chairperson of the Board shall inform the General Conference, during its 39th session in November 2017, of the candidate nominated by the Board.

Source: MENA