PARIS – Egyptian culture minister Farouk Hosni, who said last year he would burn Israeli books, yesterday failed in his bid to head the United Nations agency for culture and education, losing to a Bulgarian outsider.
Mr Hosni was beaten to the post by former Bulgarian foreign minister Irina Gueorguieva Bokova, following a fifth and final round of voting.
Ms Bokova won by 31 votes to 27 for Mr Hosni, indicating that two members of Unesco’s 58-strong executive board switched sides overnight.
Mr Hosni’s bid to become the Arab world’s first director general at Unesco had met with outrage from Jewish organisations, intellectuals and media-rights activists who accused him of turning a blind eye to censorship in Egypt.
But his backers said it was time to send a positive signal to the Muslim world, and Arab media touted him as an ideal representative who would foster cultural dialogue. – (Reuters)
