PARIS - Bulgarian career diplomat Irina Bokova won the top job at the UN culture agency Tuesday after a race clouded by anti-Semitism accusations against her Egyptian culture minister rival, UNESCO officials said.
The former foreign minister was elected director general of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation after five rounds of voting by its executive council that finally eliminated her main rival Faruq Hosni.
Hosni, an abstract painter who is currently Egypt's culture minister, has been dogged by anti-Semitism accusations.
Bokova paid tribute to her defeated rival, praising him for the friendship and respect he had shown her.
"I said to the Egyptian delegation that I hope that we will be together and that I never believed in the idea of a clash of civilisations," she told reporters at the Paris headquarters of the UN body.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said in Sofia that "this is really unexpected and a huge victory for a small country like Bulgaria."
Israel welcomed the news.
"Israel welcomes the election and is convinced that fruitful cooperation with UNESCO will continue and even be reinforced," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
But Egyptian writers' union leader Mohammed Salmawy slammed the result.
"The Jewish lobby has put a great deal of pressure and taken some statements made by the minister, put them out of context and made them political," he said.
The vote by UNESCO's 58-nation executive council gave 31 votes to Bokova and 27 to Hosni, officials said.
Hosni's supporters had said his election as the first Arab head of UNESCO, which has a mandate to promote global understanding through culture, science and education, would send a positive signal.
Khattar Abu Diab, a political scientist at the University of Paris III, told Egyptian television that "Arab, African and third world states must look at this (Hosni's defeat) as a challenge directed at them."
Other contenders for the UNESCO job included Lithuania's UNESCO ambassador Ina Marciulionyte, Benin ambassador Noureini Tidjani-Serpos, former Algerian foreign minister Mohammed Bedjaoui and Russian ex-deputy foreign minister Alexander Yakovenko.
Egypt's press on Wednesday slammed Hosni's defeat.
"A clash of civilisations determines the UNESCO fight," said the headline in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm.
"America, Europe and the Jewish lobby brought down Faruq Hosni after an honourable competition by the Egyptian delegation."
"The Egyptian and Arabic candidate for the post was subjected to a ferocious campaign against him by the American administration, under Jewish pressure," said the opposition weekly Al-Ahrar on its front page.
"Faruq Hosni's campaign was met with an uncivilised attack by Jewish intellectuals in France," state-owned Al-Ahram Al-Messai wrote in its leader column.
"Efforts by the US ambassador to UNESCO as well as the Zionist media in Europe and the United States succeeded in securing (his defeat)," it said.
Other papers felt the result revealed anti-Islamic sentiments.
The election showed "that the West stands against the others on the basis of religion in critical moments," the daily Rose al-Youssef wrote.
"All weapons were used (to bring about his defeat) including the continuous publishing of articles against him until the last minute," the paper said.
It described the election and the US pressure on countries to vote against Hosni as "voting at knifepoint".
But state-owned papers and press close to the regime attempted some damage control after the loss, insisting that the Egyptian side "fought an honourable fight... in a race that was not honourable at all," Rose al-Youssef said.
"Faruq Hosni did not bow down to European and American pressure and fought till the end," the state-owned Al-Ahram reported.
Hosni lashed out at the UN for being "politicised" on Wednesday.
"The organisation has become politicised," Hosni told reporters at Cairo airport, a day after he lost to Bokova.
"Two votes were taken away. Two votes that were considered... a betrayal," Hosni said.
"The reality is that we waged a fantastic battle. The Egyptian candidate had the newspapers and Zionist pressures against him every day," he said.
The minister described the race as a battle between north and south.
"The north always has to control the south," said Hosni, adding that "the American ambassador did everything he could" to stop his election.
President Hosni Mubarak followed the race "moment by moment" and after the result he said: "Put everything behind you", Hosni said.
Egyptians protest at Algeria's Cairo embassy