CAIRO — Cairo has been rounding up support for Moushira Khattab, its preferred candidate for the post of director-general for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Another eight candidates will be competing against Khattab in the election scheduled for Oct. 9, including Hamad al-Kawari, former Qatari minister of information and culture; Audrey Azoulay, French minister for culture and communication; and Qian Tang of China, UNESCO's assistant director-general for education. Khattab and Kawari's candidacies have launched another diplomatic confrontation between Qatar and the Arab countries boycotting it since June 5.

In July, the boycotting countries — Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — announced their support for Khattab, who has also gained the backing of the bloc of 13 African countries on UNESCO's Executive Board, who announced their support in a resolution at a summit in Addis Ababa.

The boycotting Gulf state's support of Khattab's candidacy apparently represents a retraction of their earlier decision to support Kawari. Last year, Arab League Deputy Secretary-General Ahmed Ben Helli had said that the Gulf states would support Kawari's nomination, viewing him as a representative of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

The Gulf countries boycotting Qatar have no seats on UNESCO's 58-member Executive Board and are therefore not eligible to vote. On July 31, Khattab told the press that high-level circles in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain had confirmed that they would promote her candidacy to countries on the board. She viewed their support as an expression of those countries’ growing belief in Egypt’s chances of success.