DR. Abu Bakr Al-Qirbi, the foreign minister of Yemen Republic, is a doctor of medicine with two top degrees in science and medicine from two British universities, Edinburgh and London. He worked as a doctor before returning to Yemen to become a professor at Sanaa University and later served as the chancellor of the university. Dr. Al-Qirbi first entered the ministerial Cabinet in 1993 as education minister.
In 2001 he was selected by former President Ali Abdullah Saleh to lead the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the past few years, Dr. Al-Qirbi became arguably Yemen’s finest foreign minister. His educational background gives him a greater in-depth knowledge of medicine and diseases.
Dr. Al-Qirbi has certainly proved to be a qualified minister with an astonishing grasp of national and international affairs, marvelous command of English language and especially good manners which together have stood him in good stead in his career.
Given his educational qualifications, foreign exposure and years of medical practice, he was well prepared for the grueling work of a foreign minister.
Serving as a foreign minister is an arduous task as it involves endless meetings at home and practically nonstop travels. Foreign ministers generally represent heads of state and accompany them on foreign visits everywhere. Dr. Al-Qirbi has traveled the length and breadth of the globe, sometimes covering the Far East and the US in four or five days without a letup. As part of their assignment, the minister and other staffers must be able to cope with whirlwind visits that give them sleepless nights and sumptuous food at odd hours. By the time of reaching home the minister and others are deadbeat and have to appear the next day in Parliament to tell the members what had been achieved.
Dr. Al-Qirbi has so far coped well with the punishing schedule of a foreign minister in an Arab country where he has to carry the messages of the heads of state personally according to Arab protocol. Western counterparts do not usually send their foreign ministers to do that kind of job but in the Arab world it is to be expected from a foreign minister to carry the message of his king or president by hand to the other party as an act of courtesy. Hence the nonstop travel results often more than once a fortnight sometime twice a week.
So far Dr. Al-Qirbi has managed to serve his country very well indeed in fact creditably and has overcome the ups and downs of Arab diplomacy without endangering his post and responsibilities. In addition to that the minister has to face the press, national and international, speak as honestly as possible and beware of the pitfalls that may come his way especially when he speaks impromptu, live on television and avoid hurting the susceptibilities of the host state and other friendly ones. Even not so friendly ones have to be taken care of in order not to antagonize them any further.
The whole exercise is a punishing schedule in the best of times. Dr. Al-Qirbi , whose progress I have followed keenly and closely for more than one reason, has passed muster and has surely become one of the finest Arab and Third World foreign ministers that are in the business of serving their countries and making friends for their own and avoiding turning others into foes unnecessarily.
I can vouch for his knowledge and diplomatic finesse these last few years which I have confirmed whenever I see him on the BBC live or speaking in Chataham House with confidence and fortitude. He is certainly a great success.
Dr. Al-Qirbi has been almost made for success ever since I knew him in Aden the former British colony and then Yemen, which includes Aden as part of it following the reunification of both states since l990.
He has a very nice house in the capital Sanaa, in fact a grand house with a magnificent garden which I visited a couple of times. As usual he was friendly and good company just as he was here in Jeddah whenever we met either at my house or in a restaurant. He is neither haughty nor condescending but altogether pleasant company and as usual prefers to listen than to talk unless he is asked for information or comment. He knows his subjects well on or off the record. This I confirmed recently during his last visit to the Kingdom when he called me and I went to see him in his suite at the conference palace facing the corniche in Jeddah. We agreed to meet at eleven in the evening but he was kind enough to call me from his the car of his host to let me know that he would be late by one hour if that was all right with me. It was and I waited at the palace with my son Maher who had accompanied me on several such occasions since his childhood in Jeddah.
By midnight Dr. Al-Qirbi was there, active as ever despite the many hours he had spent attending a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council and speaking on behalf of Yemen since the council had sponsored and continues to supervise closely the peace process that has saved the country from a potential civil war or anarchy. Dr. Al-Qirbi has expressed his confidence in the GCC initiative and says Yemen is grateful to it for continuing to live in peace.
Dr. Al-Qirbi has been for over 12 years responsible for Yemen’s relations with the neighbors including the GCC, Arab states, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti and other African states in addition to the United Nations. He has undoubtedly given leverage to the post of foreign minister despite his specialization in medicine which he practiced for several years plus his stint as education minister. Since he is deeply involved in the job and appears to enjoy it despite its demanding schedule I did not ask him about his next step if any.
He is now nearly 72 and writing notes of people and events he has been involved with during his career but whether he will develop the notes into a book as some foreign ministers have done and whether the book will be in English or Arabic is too early to forecast. But whatever it turns out to be I am sure it will be of great interest to the Arab reader and will be read with interest by others since there are many aspects of his work that are not necessarily available to the general reader right now.
n Farouk Luqman is an eminent journalist based in Jeddah.
