Paris - The UNESCO Executive Board has began today the interviews to nine candidates for the post of UN Director General, from Azerbaijan, China, Egypt, France, Guatemala, Iraq, El Salvador, Lebanon and Qatar.

The 58 Council members, chaired by German Michael Worbs, will interview the postulants to the UNESCO headquarters in this capital.

The candidates are Juan Alfonso Fuentes Soria, former vice president of Guatemala; Polad Bulbuloglu, former Minister of Culture of Azerbaijan; Pham Sanh Chau, Vietnam's ambassador to UNESCO Affairs; Moushira Khattab, former Minister of Family and Population of Egypt; and Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Kawari, former Minister of Culture of Qatar.

Qian Tang, Assistant Director-General of UNESCO for Education; Salih al-Hasnawi, former Minister of Health of Iraq; Vera El Khoury Lacoeuilhe, adviser to the Ministry of Culture of Lebanon; and Audrey Azoulay, Minister of Culture of France, are also on the list.

According to a statement, the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is proposed by the Executive Board and appointed by the General Conference of the organization for a four-year term, which could be renewable once.

The selection started some few weeks ago and will run for several months until the Conference in November, occasion in which the final decision will be made.

Current Director-General, Irina Bokova, began her tenure at UNESCO in 2009, and she was re-elected for a second term in 2013.