Ahmad Maher (diplomat)

Ahmad Maher (Arabic أحمد ماهر; born 14 September 1935 † 27 September 2010) was an Egyptian diplomat and politician.

Biography

Maher came from an Egyptian family. His grandfather Ahmed Maher Pasha was 1944/1945 for good four months Prime Minister, while his brother Ali Maher was also a diplomat.

He studied law at Cairo University and began his career in the diplomatic service as attaché in 1957. During his diplomatic career he worked at the embassies in Zaire, France, Switzerland and Portugal.

Between 1971-1974 he was National Security Advisor to the then President Anwar Sadat and 1978-1980 Chief of Staff of Foreign Minister Mustafa Khalil.

During the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990 he was ambassador in Moscow. After that, he was subsequently accredited 1992-1999 Ambassador to the United States, and for some time ambassador to Belgium and, as such, at the same time as the representative to the European Union. He was subsequently appointed Director of the Arab Special Assistance Fund for Africa ( SAAFA ) the Arab League based in Cairo.

In May 2001 he was appointed as the successor of Amr Musa of President Muhammad Hosni Mubarak's foreign minister and was the fourth by then foreign minister during the presidency of Mubarak. The appointment led to partial irritations, as well as his younger brother Ali Maher was mentioned as a possible Secretary of State. In December 2003, he was attacked during his visit to Israel by Palestinian extremists on the Temple Mount. On 10 July 2004, he followed the former Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York City Ahmed Aboul Gheit as foreign minister.