Amr Moussa: Mubarak Rejected Extending Abdel-Meguid’s Time in Office

In the second excerpt extracted from the soon-to-be-published biography of former Secretary-General of the Arab League Amr Moussa, “The Years of the Arab League”, the veteran Egyptian diplomat recounts the details of how he was assigned to succeed Asmat Abdel-Meguid at the regional Arab organization.

Arab countries, at the time, were conflicted about appointing Moussa, who was still serving as Egypt’s foreign minister in 2001.

In his memoirs, which will soon be released by Dar El-Shorouk, Moussa recounts how Abdel-Meguid expressed to him his desire to remain secretary-general of the Arab League even after completing his term.

Nevertheless, the then Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak refused Abdel-Meguid’s request saying that the Arab League was “asleep and dying out.”

Also, Moussa talks about how vital Gulf financial support, especially that given by Saudi Arabia, was to revamping the Arab League and granting the organization a more active role in all issues concerning the Arab world.

Four months into his tenure, Moussa was faced with the challenges and the fallout of the September 11 attacks which affected all Arabs and Muslims. Dealing with negative feelings surfacing towards Arabs and Muslims, Moussa’s efforts to manage the situation included making vigorous calls, releasing official statements, meeting with US officials, and organizing a conference entitled “Dialogue of Civilizations: An Exchange not a Clash.”

In the last days of November 2000, then chief of the Arab League Abdel-Meguid phoned Moussa and asked for a meeting to discuss important issues that included the future of his position at the organization.

Moussa agreed to Abdel-Meguid’s request and said he would see him at his office before the end of the week.

In that meeting, Abdel-Meguid expressed worry towards his term in office ending before he had given all he had to offer and suggested if he could be given an additional year or two.

Abdel-Meguid did not ask for renewing his contract for a third full term because he knew that Arab League member states would oppose the idea.

Moussa carried Abdel-Meguid’s proposal to President Mubarak the very same evening of the meeting but was faced by clear-cut rejection.

The senior diplomat even requested if Abdel-Meguid’s time in office could be renewed for a single year as a form of honoring his journey at the Arab League.

“Tell him enough is enough…there are important countries at the Arab League who told me that the organization is completely sleeping and will die,” Mubarak told Moussa, confirming that there will be no renewal for Abdel-Meguid.

Two days later, Moussa informed Abdel-Meguid of Mubarak’s refusal.

“He was understanding and showed his known calm and never recalled the subject,” Moussa recounts about Abdel-Meguid’s reaction.

Shortly after, Moussa was informed that it was time for Egypt to select its candidate for chief of the Arab League.

“One winter morning at the end of the year 2000, while I was sitting at a round table in my office at the foreign ministry reading a report, enjoying the winter sun, the presidential phone rang,” said Moussa.

“The presidential secretary for information, Ambassador Majed Abdel-Fattah, was the one speaking. He started by saying that the president was requesting that the minister provides him with one or more names of nominees suited for becoming the next secretary-general of the Arab League,” he added.

Mubarak’s Message

Abdel-Fattah went on to express that many, including the president, believed that Moussa was the right man for the job.

“I realized that it (the call) was a message from President Mubarak right away,” Moussa explained, adding that his response was accepting the offer.

“Egypt announced the news of my candidacy to succeed Abdel-Meguid officially on February 15, 2001.”

“This caused a great uproar in Egypt, as well as in a large number of Arab and even international capitals. I think Washington and Tel Aviv were very happy with the news.”

Moussa goes on to say that some Arab countries opposed his candidacy because staying at the helm of Egypt’s Foreign Ministry was more effective and more beneficial in serving higher Arab interests.

Saudi and Gulf Support

Then Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal conveyed the Kingdom’s support for Moussa whether he is Egypt’s foreign minister or the chief of the Arab League.

Moussa was told that he will receive all the needed support.

“I recall discussing with Prince Saud the financial standing of the Arab League which was edging on bankruptcy, and the need to back me as the new chief in a way that enabled me to reform the joint Arab action organization,” Moussa added.

Prince Saud, for his part, voiced his support and promised to take the matter to then Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz.

“In my view, I believed that the Arab League can be reformed if it was run by a modern administration and if sufficient funds were made available to give the organization’s employees a sense of security,” Moussa said about his strategy to reinvigorate the organization’s work.

“Indeed, I toured Gulf countries and received promises from high-level officials that the necessary funds will be made available in the form of special support for the Arab League,” he added, noting that he was ensured full-control over how the incoming money was to be spent.

“They trusted the new administration at the Arab League and its ability to move joint Arab action forward,” Moussa noted.

Day One at the Arab League Headquarters

“At 9:30 am on May 16, 2001, I left my house to find the Arab League’s secretary-general designated car waiting for me. The vehicle was old and worn out. What caught my eye was that the Arab League flag was raised over the car,” Moussa recalled.

“I asked the guard to remove the flag; there was no need to roam the streets of Cairo in a car with the Arab League flag fluttering over it. Close to 10:00 am I arrived at the Arab League’s headquarters.”

Accompanied by Ambassador Samir Saif el-Yazal, a “good” executive figure that was hand-picked by Moussa to help in supervising financial and administrative affairs at the Arab League, Moussa headed to the office of the Arab League secretary-general on the first floor.

“First I sat in the office salon, appalled by the lights on the whole floor being dimmed and the paintwork on the walls being outdated! I told el-Yazal that this sight must change immediately.”

Moussa then ordered el-Yazal to open windows, paint the walls with light colors, and make the lighting bright so as not to encourage sleep.

Outraged by the cluttered job done on connecting phone cables at the office, Moussa summoned the manager of the administrative affairs and demanded that an overhaul takes place before the end of the week.

Slowly but surely, things began changing.

In terms of developing Arab League headquarters, the Kingdom of Morocco offered to develop one of the rundown halls, and China developed a second hall as a gift to Moussa.

Moussa also ordered a dramatic shift in the arrangement of how delegations are seated, introducing a fresh environment to representatives.

Arab League Teams

“My conviction was firm that there would be no development for the system of joint Arab action without first improving the human cadre working at the Arab League and its affiliated institutions. I started meeting with workers in groups, each group consisting of five or six members, to sort out those I could count on,” Moussa said about his early efforts to reform the Arab League.

During the first two months of meetings with employees, Moussa chose about 30 individuals from whom the Arab League can invest and rely on.

“I began assigning them tasks and found that their education was superior and that they were ready to develop and work. They were no less qualified than the workers of any other organization ... they just needed guidance and confidence,” said Moussa.

Ahmed Abu Della was born in the Lebanese village of Yarine before the land to the south was known as Israel.

He hoped to spend his final days there - but 80 years later, with his hometown pummeled by Israeli shelling, Abu Della's children gave him an ultimatum: leave Yarine, or we will come there to die with you.

Abu Della and his younger brother were the last residents of Yarine still living there this spring. Most families fled in October, soon after Lebanese armed group Hezbollah began trading fire with the Israeli military in parallel with the Gaza war.

"What let me last so long was the soil itself," Abu Della told Reuters, with tears in his eyes as he described the home he built in Yarine, surrounded by his beloved farmland and cattle. "If you turn the soil over, you'll find our fingerprints in it."

More than 95,000 people have been displaced in southern Lebanon since hostilities erupted, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Across the border in Israel, 60,000 people have fled their homes.

But unlike in Israel, where the state is funding hotel stays and other temporary housing for those displaced by the war, families in Lebanon have received little to no state support.

More than 80% of those displaced in Lebanon are being hosted by relatives or friends, according to the IOM. Another 14% are renting out homes and just 2% are living in collective shelters.

Yarine's residents are among the majority who have relied on relatives - and it isn't the first time.

Many of the town's residents remember fleeing Yarine in 1978, during the Israeli military's incursion in the early years of Lebanon's civil war.

They traipsed to the port city of Sidon, through several towns in the south and into the mountainous Chouf region before eventually settling on the outskirts of Baisariyeh, 50 km (31 miles) north of their hometown, and building modest homes.

As more people from Yarine settled there in the 1980s, they set up water pipes and built their own school, earning the area the nickname of "the Yarine district" of Baisariyeh.

'STILL BEING SCATTERED'

Samer Abu Della, Ahmed's nephew, was born in "Yarine district" near Baisariyeh in 1979. Growing up to become a teacher, he built a home in Yarine with his wife and six children in 2011, thinking the border had stabilized after the month-long war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.

But now, he's back to "the district" after having fled shelling on the border.

"This feeling, or rather past experience, stays. It becomes something that gets passed down through generations. We said, 'two days and we'll be back (home),' then 30 years went by until we went back," said Samer.

"That's the feeling that some people are afraid of," he said outside his mother's modest home on the outskirts of Baisariyeh, where he was now staying.

Samer's two young sons slept on the couch for months, while he, his wife, and their four daughters squeezed into a single bedroom. His mother's kitchen table wasn't big enough to fit the 11 people now living there, so she served two rounds of each meal to make sure everyone had a seat.

Samer said there were at least 70 families like his who had fled Yarine and were now back in Baisariyeh - and that their meagre means were not nearly enough.

Families in Lebanon have been hit hard by a five-year economic meltdown that has blocked their savings in banks, slashed the value of the Lebanese pound and forced the state to lift subsidies that once made some basic services affordable.

Lebanon's government has not announced stipends or other forms of long-term support to those affected by the hostilities, while Hezbollah has distributed some financial packages and covered rent for some families.

The Abu Della family said it received a food basket from the Southern Council, an official body, but it was not enough to cover their needs during their displacement.

"No one knocked on our door and no one asked... Everyone's been dealing with their own situation through their own efforts," said Lamia Abu Della, 74, Samer's aunt.

"We were displaced in 1977 and we're still being scattered from here to there. But what do we do? This was imposed on us - it's not in our hands."

Amr Moussa: Mubarak Rejected Extending Abdel-Meguid’s Time in Office