Qatar loses UNESCO bid

Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al-Kawari, Qatari candidate in the contest to head the UN’s embattled cultural agency, was beaten by former French Culture Minister Audrey Azoulay on Friday.

Azoulay, 49, came from behind after six rounds of voting to defeat Al-Kawari, also a former culture minister, after he failed to pick up support from other Gulf states. The vote was 30 to 28.

The politically charged contest clouded by accusations of anti-Israel bias follows French media reports that Qatar recently invited several members of the UNESCO executive board on an all-expenses-paid trip to Doha.

Al-Kawari had also been dogged by old allegations of anti-Semitism after the Simon Wiesenthal Center accused him of remaining silent about anti-Semitic books at a fair in Doha when he was culture minister.

Azoulay had edged out Egyptian rights activist Moushira Khattab earlier Friday as the main challenger to Al-Kawari, the frontrunner until the final run-off.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, who was in Paris for the vote, “urged all his friends to vote for France” instead of Qatar in the final round, a member of Khattab’s delegation told AFP.

Egypt is part of the Saudi-led Anti-Terror Quartet that severed ties with Doha in June over its support for hard-liners and its ties to Iran.
Shoukry also raised concerns over the integrity of the vote in a meeting with outgoing UNESCO chief Irina Bokova, his spokesman said.

On Thursday, the US and Israel said they plan to pull out of the Paris-based organization over its perceived anti-Israel bias.

Lebanon’s candidate Vera El-Khoury, who bowed out at the fourth round of voting, told AFP that the power game at play in the race had shown UNESCO members “did not give a damn” about the candidates’ programs.

UNESCO is best known for producing a list of World Heritage sites including tourist favorites such as the Grand Canyon or Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, but it also runs science, media training and cultural programs internationally.

The US decision to withdraw, which is to take effect on December 31, 2018, underlined America’s drift away from international institutions under President Donald Trump.

Washington has walked out on UNESCO once before, in 1984, after a row over funding and alleged anti-US bias.

Washington returned to the fold in 2002, seeing UNESCO as a vehicle for combating extremism in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

But in 2011 relations soured again after UNESCO admitted Palestine as a full member, prompting the US to cut its funding to the organization, leaving a gaping hole in its finances.

In just over a year as culture minister under Socialist president Francois Hollande, Azoulay secured a budget increase for her ministry after years of deep cuts.