Egypt Nominates ex-Minister for Top UNESCO Job

Egypt announced Tuesday it is nominating former minister and ambassador Moushira Khattab for the post of UNESCO director general.

A former ambassador to South Africa, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Khattab was family and population minister between 2009 and 2011 under now-deposed president Hosni Mubarak.

She also served as secretary general of the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood in Egypt.

"Egypt will nominate ambassador Moushira Khattab for director general of UNESCO," said a statement from the office of Prime Minister Sherif Ismail.

The mandate of UNESCO's current director general, Irina Bokova of Bulgaria, expires in 2017.

Bokova is among the candidates to succeed U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, whose mandate runs out this year.

She was elected head of the Paris-based UNESCO in 2009, becoming the first woman to lead the U.N. agency. She was re-elected in 2013 for a second four-year term

Qatar's ambassador to Paris announced in December that his country would be putting up a candidate for the position, nominating Culture Minister Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kawari.