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Abul Gheit to head Arab League

Cairo - Qatar voices reservations over veteran egypt diplomat due to his hostile position towards Doha

Veteran Egyptian diplomat Ahmed Abul Gheit was named on Thursday as the Arab League's new secretary-general, at a time when the regional body faces mul-tiple wars and a widening militant threat.
In a sign of divisions within the pan-Arab body, however, Qatar voiced reservations over Abul Gheit's candidacy due to his "hos-tile positions" towards Doha, Arab diplomats said."The consultations resulted in the nomination of Ahmed Abul Gheit to the post of secretary-general," Bahraini Foreign Minister Khaled bin Ahmed Al Khalifa announced in televised remarks at the end of a ministerial meeting.
Abul Gheit would serve a five-year term effective July 1 as secretary-general. Abul Gheit, who served as for-eign minister under Egypt's ousted president Hosni Mubarak, takes of-fice at a time when the Cairo-based Arab League is facing several tests of its unity.At the top of the list is the war in Syria that has killed more than 270,000 people and displaced mil-lions since it erupted in 2011.
The more than five-year-old conflict has seen regional heavy-weights Saudi Arabia and Iran backing opposite sides.In addition, relations between Qatar and Egypt, which tradition-ally chooses candidates for the post of secretary-general, have soured.Cairo accuses Doha of supporting its outlawed Muslim Brother-hood movement of former Egyptian president Mohammed Mursi, who was toppled by the army in 2013.
The Brotherhood has been the tar-get of a brutal crackdown since then, and Doha has regularly denounced the operations that left hundreds dead and thousands in jail.Qatari Foreign Minister Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani expressed Doha's "reservations" over Abul Gheit but voiced hope the next secretary-general "will maintain contact between all Arab countries in the interest of joint Arab action".
Several diplomats said that Qatar had accused Abul Gheit of pushing Egypt to boycott a Qatari-proposed Arab summit in 2009 to discuss an Israeli assault on Gaza.Unlike the charismatic ex-chief of the Arab League, fellow Egyp-tian Amr Moussa, who was known for taking a tough stand on Israel, Abul Gheit has often faced criti-cism for adopting a softer approach towards the radical state.Abul Gheit had accused the Palestinian movement Hamas which rules Gaza of being responsible for the Israeli assault.
Cairo proposed Abul Gheit, 73, for the post after the incumbent, Nabil Al Arabi, another Egyptian, declined a second five-year term as secretary-general. His term ends in July.Traditionally, the secretary-gen-eral has held the position for two terms and the post has gone to an Egyptian, with Tunisia's Chedli Klibi the sole exception.Abul Gheit will be the eighth secretary-general of the Arab League since it was founded in 1945