AFP - Egyptian Foreign Minister, Nabil al-Arabi, called Sunday at the head of the Arab League, has emerged since the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak as the architect of the new Egyptian diplomacy.
Appointed March 6, in a few weeks he felt his mark in the Israeli-Palestinian relations with Iran or the thorny issue of sharing the Nile waters.
Aged 75, he took over from Ahmad Aboul Gheit, a baron of the team's deposed president.
Familiar arcane diplomatic, he is shortly to take the records in hand, to the point that commentators in the media have hailed the new diplomacy acquired one of the safest in the regime change, in contrast to political uncertainties and economic stagnation.
Unknown to the general public, but his name was on a list of people deemed able to lead the transition, proposed by a coalition of youth groups that launched the uprising in January and February.
Former UN ambassador, a respected diplomat and international lawyer, he worked in 2001 to the International Court of Justice.
Nabil al-Arabi was also part of the Egyptian team that negotiated peace with Israel in 1978-1979.Egypt and Jordan are the only Arab country to sign peace with Israel.
Supporter of maintaining the peace treaty with Israel in 1979, he believes this should not prevent Cairo to take more distance with the Jewish state that under Mr.Mubarak, including the controversial blockade of the Gaza Strip.
He was also involved in the recent reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas Palestinian side of the Egyptian intelligence chief Murad Mouafi.
The Minister has also repeatedly expressed a desire for rapprochement with Iran, but did not reveal to this day a formal restoration of diplomatic relations.
He also worked for a more open and active vis-à-vis the African upstream Nile Basin, in rivalry with Egypt for use quotas of the river water.
At his retirement, Mr.Arabi was established in Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration, a nonprofit organization that operates nationally and internationally.
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