CAIRO: Egypt has named Sameh Shukry, once its chief envoy to the UN s Geneva headquarters, as the new ambassador to the United States, the Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday.
Shukry, who will take up his new post in September, replaces Nabil Fahmy who served as ambassador to Washington for eight years during a particularly difficult period in US-Egyptian relations and is credited for smoothing over differences between the two nations over human rights, internal politics and democracy.
Prior to taking up his post in Geneva, Shukry was an assistant to Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and served briefly as personal secretary to President Hosni Mubarak.
The change comes as Washington is also set to replace its own chief envoy to Cairo, Francis J. Ricciardone, who has served as US ambassador to Egypt since August 2005.
Bilateral relations have been strained over Egypt s rejection of what it calls interference in its internal affairs, particularly Washington s call to release Ayman Nour from a five-year prison term. Nour, who ran against Mubarak in 2005, was convicted on forgery charges his supporters say were trumped up.
In her nomination testimony, the new prospective ambassador, Margaret Scobey, vowed to do everything in her power to push the most populous Arab country to advance civil and political liberties. – AP
