section_path: Diplomatic career/Foreign minister
section_name: Foreign minister
paragraph_text: Foreign minister
  
  Aboul Gheit served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt from 11 July 2004 to 6 March 2011. In December 2005, he began mediating the Chad-Sudan conflict. In 2006, he was critical of Pope Benedict XVI and accused him of having no understanding of real Islam.
  
  On 26 December 2010, Aboul Gheit opened the first Egyptian consulate outside Baghdad in the northern city of Erbil, where he also held talks with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
  
  After Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February 2011, Aboul Gheit retired from the foreign ministry to write his memoirs.