(MENAFN- The Peninsula) By Irfan Bukhari / The Peninsula
For the first time, some Arab countries voted for non-Arab candidates in recently held Unesco elections, Minister of State H E Dr. Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kawari (pictured) said yesterday. 'Thus three Arab votes went to my competitor because they did not want an Arab to win, he said in an interview with Al Jazeera.
He said that Unesco is one of the most important organizations which carries important humanitarian goals. 'When my country nominated me to compete as a candidate for the position of Director General of Unesco, I visited 60 countries within two years and this was never done by any candidate before. During these visits I was listening more than speaking to know what the world wants from Unesco.
Dr. Al Kawari said that the election of the Unesco DG this time was not based on consensus by referring the issue to the Executive Council but by voting where 44 countries abstained from voting, 19 voted against me, most of them were supporting my vision. 'I was the only candidate who addressed the political crisis the Unesco is facing, as others kept speaking about financial crisis of the organization.
Because, he said, I believe that the financial crisis will not be solved unless there is solution for the political crisis and the Palestinian issue is one of them. 'The US withdrawal from Unesco is a political decision.
He said that there was world consensus that the DG of the organization should be an Arab, and having more than one Arab candidates for the position was not a problem. 'This is the first time that an Arab candidate won five rounds and there was only one vote less to win the final round. He said that the nature of the election this time was different and the current crisis also played a role in the result. However, Al Kawari noted, standing against the Qatari candidate began before the current Gulf crisis. 'The United Arab Emirates played negative role against my election because at the beginning they tried to select Ghassan Salame but he refused because his selection was not coming from his country Lebanon.
'This year on August 22, I received a call from the Secretary General of the Arab Writer's Union and he told me there were more than one Arab candidates for the DG position and he invited me for meeting but I sent him a letter explaining my view in which I stressed that I was running a campaign for almost two years.
Dr Al Kawari said that the UAE had tried to push Italian candidate, and at the last moment the UAE managed to convince France to field its candidate.
He said that he did not want to mention the names of the countries which did not vote Qatar's candidate out of the fear that they might face economic pressures. 'They were not the members of Executive Committee of Unesco.
He said that it was a big loss because Arab countries had been dreaming for this since the establishment of Unesco. 'Arab culture is the most important culture of the world so this culture has a right to be on top of the Unesco.
He said that it was not good that few cultures were repeatedly taking the top position of the same organization and Arab culture could not take a chance.
'The strange thing was the opposition to Arab candidate by some Arab countries. This is a disaster and I believe history will not forgive them. He said that in the first week of the nomination of Egyptian candidate, Bahrain King announced supporting her despite knowing that she lacked winning votes. 'This indicates their enmity against Qatari candidate. The enmity did not come to light on June 5 when the unjust blockade imposed on Qatar but it appeared very earlier.
He said that Unseco is playing very important role in education sector and is preserving the heritage and 'we believe this role will not disappear. He said that now France is shouldering a big responsibility.
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