Paris, September 28: New UNESCO chief Irina Bokova of Bulgaria said Sunday that she would make visiting Arab countries a priority in a bid to ease tensions over her battle with Egypt’s Faruq Hosni for the job.
Bokova insisted she was “a friend of the Muslim world” after her defeat of the Egyptian culture minister to become the UN’s cultural head triggered a storm of protest in his home country over the interference of pro-Israeli lobbying.
“Among my first trips of course, will be Muslim, Arab countries, because I think that if there were some suspicions, some hesitations, I want to get rid of such hesitations,” she told TV5Monde television.
The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation elected Bokova on Tuesday after five rounds of voting, leading to defeat for favourite Hosni in the wake of Israeli allegations of anti-Semitism.
He accused the Paris-based organisation of being “politicised”, while the Egyptian press was outrage at the Israeli lobby and the United States, whom are accused of interfering in the process.
But Hosni has no issue with the new UNESCO head, the body’s first female director general and the first from the former Soviet bloc.
“I have already received congratulations from the Egyptian foreign minister,” she said.
“I have also received many congratulations and letters of support for my new role… among them many ministers of different Arab countries.”
—Agencies