Sawt Falasteen - UNESCO board backs Egyptian ex-minister for top job: official

UNESCO's board backed former Egyptian antiquities and tourism minister Khaled el-Enany to replace outgoing French director-general Audrey Azoulay, after she served two four-year terms in office.

The organisation's general assembly must now ratify the 54-year-old Egyptologist's appointment during its meeting in Uzbekistan on November 6.

The body has never gone against a recommendation by the executive board, which is made up of 58 out of 194 member states.

Enany won 55 of the 57 votes cast, said the board's chair, Vera Lacoeuilhe.

The United States, which has announced its withdrawal from the organisation, did not take part in the vote.

Only two candidates were in the running for the top job, after a Mexican contender backed out in August.

Enany, who emerged as the favourite, faced off against the Republic of Congo's Firmin Edouard Matoko, who had served as UNESCO's de facto foreign minister until March.

Enany oversaw antiquities, and later also tourism, from 2016 to 2022 under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Since announcing his bid more than two years ago, he claimed to have visited 65 countries, meeting 400 people over 30 months on the campaign trail.

If his nomination is confirmed, he will take office on November 14 as UNESCO's first director-general from an Arab country and the second from an African nation, after Senegal's Amadou Mahtar Mbow, who served from 1974 to 1987.

Enany would take the reins at a difficult time for UNESCO - best known for establishing world heritage sites - after the United States announced in June that it would leave the organisation, claiming it was biased against Israel and promoted "divisive" causes.

That move, set to take effect at the end of 2026, will deal a major blow to the agency's finances, as Washington contributes eight percent of its budget.

Enany has said he would seek to bring the United States back into the organisation.

In May, Nicaragua also announced it was pulling out of UNESCO after it bestowed its annual press prize on a venerable Nicaraguan newspaper whose staff were forced into exile.

L.AbuTayeh--SF-PST