Dear Brothers and Sisters, Members of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs,
we have lost a unique manwho joined us in the establishment of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs seventeen years ago. It earned him our love and respect, and he was constantly a model of noble manners and unqualified sacrifice by which the Council achieved much and grew to occupy a high place in civil society.
I am writing to you on Friday, 18th March 2016. Yesterday afternoon Waheeb called me. My heart leapt in joy when his name appeared on the screen and when he told me that he was getting better and came out of the Intensive Care Unit, where he had stayed for many weeks. I said praise be to Allah and may God keep you in His care and you join us again at the helm of ECFA which misses you so much and recalls how it elected you unanimously.
We were always happy to see you steering ECFA at its first Board meeting, which no one knew that it would be the last meeting you would attend as Board Chairman. Then you were rushed to El-Salam Hospital to remain there until you departed our world, leaving behind numerous colleagues who love you so much and you loved them. Here, they are today mourning you and always remembering your picture with your smile which never left your face.
I kept to myself all day yesterday. I did not go out except for Friday prayer and return to my sorrows for the loss of a dear friend whose friendship was among the best things our dear ECFA presented to me since its inception in the closing years of the last century. Whenever, I mentioned your name to anyone, I would see a broad smile fill his face, and words of praise flow welcoming you as Board Chairman.
Your diplomatic talent was matchless and your noble manners and wisdom are unrivaled. Today, I invite you colleagues to work together to achieve what this beloved man hoped to realize, to see our Council at the highest level and give our country the fruit of its experience and wisdom for a brighter and a greater future.
Goodbye dear brother, good friend and noble colleague. As for you, dear colleagues and fellow ECFA members, we pledge to continue to work in order to raise ECFA to what our dear departed hoped and worked for.
Date: 19th March 2016
