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New Arab League Chief to be nominated tomorrow -- Ben Helli

CAIRO, May 14 (KUNA) -- Deputy Secretary-General of the Arab League Ambassador Ahmed Ben Helli revealed on Saturday that the extraordinary ministerial meeting of the Arab foreign ministers would nominate tomorrow the new secretary general of the Arab League, succeeding Amr Moussa of Egypt.
The two competing candidates are Dr. Mostafa El-Feqqi and Abdul Rahman al-Attiyah.
Bin Helli said in a statement that there are three scenarios; the first is the selection of the Secretary General by consensus, according to the Arab League Charter since the amendment of the Charter at the summit in Algeria in 2005, and should consensus not be achieved, ministers would resort to the voting rule which requires a candidate to obtain two-thirds of the votes "14 members after the freezing of the membership of Libya." He added that the third scenario is to postpone the issue if consensus is not achieved, noting that during the past 60 years, the issue of nominating a new Secretary General had always been on the basis of consensus.
Ben Helli pointed out that the meeting would also discuss Egypt's request to appoint a special coordinator by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to prepare for the international conference aimed at making the Middle East a zone free of nuclear weapons, in implementation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty conference resolution, which was held last year in New York.
He added that the Egyptian request was the result of slowness in the implementation of the UN resolution on this subject and the absence of signs of preparation for the Conference of the United Nations. (end).
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