Amr Mussa

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Amr Mussa (2011)

Amr Mussa ( Arabic عمرو موسى ʿAmr Mūsā , often also written Amr Musa or Moussa ; *  October 3, 1936 in Cairo ) is an Egyptian diplomat and politician. From 2001 to 2011 he was Secretary General of the Arab League , before that he was Foreign Minister of Egypt . Since September 2012 he has been the chairman of the new conference party .

Life

Training and beginnings as a diplomat

Mussa studied law at Cairo University until 1957 and then embarked on a career as a professional diplomat. Between 1958 and 1972 he was a. a. at the embassies in Switzerland and at the United Nations . From 1974 to 1977, Mussa was then personal advisor to the Foreign Minister. After his appointment as head of the Department for International Organizations in the Foreign Ministry in 1977, he was Egypt's Deputy Representative to the United Nations from 1981 to 1983 and Ambassador to India from 1983 to 1986. He then returned to the Foreign Ministry as head of department and was appointed Egyptian ambassador to the United Nations in 1990.

Moussa at the 2013 World Economic Forum

Position as Foreign Minister and AL Secretary General

In the government of Kamal al-Ganzuri he was appointed foreign minister in 1991 and remained in this post until 2001. During his tenure, Mussa was a critic of the United States and its relations with Israel . In 2001 he was appointed General Secretary of the Arab League. Many critics of the former Egyptian President Husni Mubarak take the view that Mussa's appointment as general secretary was motivated by Mubarak's desire to move Mussa, who had become very popular during his time as foreign minister (and thus a potential competitor for Mubarak), into a position with less publicity Urging attention. As Secretary General, he may a. for lifting the Israeli blockade of Gaza .

On April 10, 2011, he called for a no-fly zone in the Gaza Strip to stop attacks by the Israeli air force . He supported the no-fly zone imposed over Libya in order to take action against an “increasingly inhuman regime”. However, he criticized the bombing of NATO troops as not being effective in protecting the civilian population. According to the British Foreign Minister, he continues to support the military actions.

Role in the opposition and possible presidential candidacy

Before the 2005 presidential election in Egypt (which was overshadowed by fraud allegations), Mussa was seen as a possible candidate, but declared that he wanted to finish his term as General Secretary of the Arab League. During the revolution in Egypt in 2011 he was traded as a possible presidential candidate for the opposition to succeed Mubarak. On February 26, 2011, he announced that he would run for president. He therefore renounced another term as General Secretary of the AL, and on May 15, 2011, the Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Elaraby was elected as his successor.

Mussa is seen as controversial within the opposition. On the one hand, he is still popular as a foreign politician and is considered by many Egyptians to be an experienced statesman. On the other hand, he is viewed with suspicion because of his ties to the old Mubarak regime. Some strategists abroad (who tend to oppose a clear departure from Mubarak policy), such as the Council on Foreign Relations , see this connection as positive for stability in the country. According to statements by Seymour Hersh in February 2011, Mussa was favored by US diplomats as a "plan B" for the presidency if Mubarak should resign. The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) (part of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange ) also criticized Mussa for z. B. did not show support for the protests in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain .

At the constitutional referendum in Egypt in 2011 , he spoke out against the constitutional amendments as they were not deep enough for effective changes in Egypt and pleaded for a new constitution. In the opinion of the director of the GIGA Institute for Middle East Studies , Henner Fürtig , Mussa wanted to distance himself publicly from the old regime (and the associated allegation of proximity). In 2013 he is drafting a new constitution on behalf of the transitional government.

literature

Web links

Commons : Amr Mussa  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mussa's profile from BBC News , 2002
  2. ^ Arab League for a no-fly zone over Gaza
  3. ^ Spiegel interview: The Beginning of an Epochal Development , March 2011
  4. ↑ Libya: Missile strike destroys Gaddafi 'command center' , BBC , March 2011
  5. ^ Hague says Arab League backs action in Libya , Reuters, March 2011
  6. ↑ Mussa is running for president in Egypt. In: ORF . February 27, 2011, accessed February 28, 2011 .
  7. ↑ Der Standard : Egypt's Foreign Minister Becomes Secretary General , May 15, 2011.
  8. ↑ Tagesschau.de: Tinkering about Egypt's future - without Mubarak ( Memento from February 5, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). February 4, 2011.
  9. ^ Asia Times: African dissent on no-fly zone counts , March 2011
  10. ↑ Amr Moussa - between revolution, military and western interest politics ( Memento of May 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), IMI analysis 2011/11 (April 2011)
  11. ↑ Factbox: Egypt's constitutional referendum ( Memento of December 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), Reuters, March 2011
  12. ^ Controversy over constitutional referendum in Egypt , DW, March 2011
  13. ↑ "Difficult, painful, bloody." Interview with Moussa, Der Spiegel, November 25, 2013, pp. 108–112
personal data
SURNAME Mussa, Amr
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Musa, Amr; Moussa, Amr; عمرو موسى (Arabic)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Egyptian diplomat and politician
DATE OF BIRTH October 3, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Cairo