Former Foreign Affairs Minister Nabil Fahmy Appointed Arab League Secr

Former Minister of Foreign Affairs Nabil Fahmy has been appointed Secretary-General of the Arab League, following unanimous approval by Arab foreign ministers during a virtual meeting.

The appointment, endorsed after Egypt’s formal nomination, will take effect on July 1st, 2026, for a five-year term. Fahmy will succeed Ahmed Aboul Gheit, who has held the position since 2016, following the tenure of Nabil El-Araby.

Since the organisation’s founding in 1945, the role has traditionally been held by Egyptian diplomats, with the exception of Tunisian diplomat Al-Shazly Al-Qalibi, who served between 1979 and 1990.

Fahmy previously served as Egypt’s foreign minister from July 2013 to June 2014 and has held multiple diplomatic roles over a career spanning more than three decades. His postings included serving as ambassador to Japan from 1997 to 1999 and to the United States from 1999 to 2008.

He also participated in international negotiations on security and arms control, chaired the United Nations advisory board on disarmament matters and served as vice-chair of the UN General Assembly’s First Committee on Disarmament and International Security.

Fahmy was also part of the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference and contributed to review conferences of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. In 2009, he founded the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, serving as its first dean until 2014.

He has authored works on Egyptian foreign policy, including ‘Egypt’s Diplomacy in War, Peace, and Transition’ (2020) and its Arabic counterpart ‘From the Heart of Events’ (2022), examining key regional developments and historical turning points.