IMMENSELY EXPERIENCED, tough, capable of fine diplomacy and plain-speaking, Amr Moussa, the 74-year-old secretary general of the 22-nation Arab League, is used to being at the point where an array of different pressures collide.
Moussa – once the Egyptian foreign minister, appointed by deposed president Hosni Mubarak – is one of the few elder statesmen in the Middle East who is genuinely respected by leaders and on the street.
As sharp-elbowed as he is sharp-witted, not only did Moussa successfully rise up the hierarchy of the Egyptian bureaucracy but he managed to turn himself into something of a celebrity while doing so.
He is now juggling a new series of demands. One of his jobs, says Claire Spencer, head of the Middle East and North Africa programme at the think tank Chatham House, is to test ordinary people’s reaction to a variety of positions on behalf of the Arab League’s members.
“Everyone is aware of the shifting sands in the region. There was little love lost for Gadafy but all the members [of the League] are in a difficult position vis a vis their own populations,” Spencer says.
Moussa has always spoken plainly, and the uneasiness he expressed about possibly exceeding the original aims of UN Security Council resolution 1973 is broadly shared in the region.
Another layer of complex manoeuvring is added by his own personal political ambitions. Moussa has refused to rule himself out as a presidential candidate.
While he would undoubtedly receive some support, he faces several disadvantages, says Spencer. He has no political organisation and, perhaps more importantly, is very much of the older generation that the Egyptian youth holds responsible for the country’s ills. – (Guardian service)