Mauritanian diplomat and former foreign minister Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed has been elected secretary-general of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. He was chosen on Thursday during a special meeting of OIC foreign ministers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The 66-year-old will succeed Chad’s Hissein Brahim Taha, whose term is formally due to end next November.

The special meeting also discussed Palestinian statehood and the recent situation in Jerusalem. The OIC works on major issues concerning the Muslim world, with Palestinian national rights and the status of Jerusalem among its principal concerns.

Ahmed served as Mauritania’s foreign minister from 2018 to 2022. Before that, he was the United Nations secretary-general’s special envoy for Yemen between 2015 and 2018 and worked with the UN Support Mission in Libya. He also held UN humanitarian coordination and UNFPA representative roles in Yemen from 2012 to 2014 and in Syria from 2008 to 2012. He speaks Arabic, French and English.