Ahmad Maher (diplomat)

Maher was born in Cairo on 14 September 1935.[1] He came from a family of diplomats and politicians.[2] He was the brother of Ambassador Ali Maher[3] and their grandfather, Ahmad Mahir Pasha, was one of the prime ministers of Egypt.[4] He studied law at Cairo University and graduated in 1956.[4]

After graduation Maher joined the foreign ministry in 1957, serving as a junior diplomat in Switzerland (9 February 1959 - 31 August 1963), Congo (5 May 1967 - 24 May 1971) and France (8 August 1974 - 30 September 1977).[3] In addition, he was the national security advisor to the president of Egypt from 1971 to 1974.[5] Next he was named as the head of the foreign minister’s staff.from 1978 to 1980.[5] He was part of the Camp David talks in 1978, where he was assigned to coordinate efforts with the then US secretary of state Cyrus Vance.[2] He also took part in the 1988 talks, leading to the return of Taba to Egyptian control after Israel occupied the town in 1967.[6]

Generally considered an outsider in Egyptian politics, Maher had a distinguished career as a diplomat. Most notably, he was ambassador to the Soviet Union (1 October 1988 - 19 June 1992) as well as ambassador to Portugal (5 September 1980 - 8 November 1982) and Belgium (8 November 1982 - 9 December 1984).[7] In addition, he served as the ambassador in Washington for seven years from 7 July 1992 to 14 September 1999.[3][8] He retired from office in 1999.[8] After retirement, he was named as the director of the Special Arab Aid Fund for Africa (SAAFA) in Cairo, a body of the Arab League, in 2000.[5][9]

He was appointed foreign minister on 15 May 2001, being the 71st figure in the post.[9][10] He succeeded Amr Moussa as foreign minister after Moussa was appointed head of the Arab League.[11] When he was in office many significant events in regard to the Arab world occurred, including the 9/11 attacks on the United States, the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.[6] During a visit to Israel as part of Egyptian efforts to relaunch the peace process, Maher was attacked by Palestinian activists in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in east Jerusalem in December 2003.[12] The Palestinians booed and hurled shoes at him in protest at Egypt's perceived policy of appeasement towards Israel.[11] His term ended in 2004 and Ahmed Aboul Gheit replaced him in the post.[6]

In July 2010, Hosni Mobarak appointed him a member of the parliament's upper house, or Shura Council.[11]

Maher died of a heart attack on 27 September 2010 at the age of 75.[11][13][14]