AMMAN (JT) – The Mediterranean Union’s first leader, Jordan’s Ahmad Masadeh, has quit the job after one year in office, saying conditions for the post had changed, Agence France-Presse reported.

A statement from his office on Wednesday said: “The general conditions against which he accepted to assume the job have changed.”

He would “continue his support for a professionally sound and politically empowered secretariat…,” the statement added, according to AFP.

Masadeh, 41, a lawyer, who was an ambassador to the European Union and NATO in Brussels, took office with the 43-nation, Barcelona-based union in January 2010.

The Union for the Mediterranean was officially launched at the Paris summit in July 2008 and incorporates 43 European, Middle Eastern and North African countries.

The organisation aims to establish a regional cooperation structure that would contribute to achieving peace, stability and growth in the Mediterranean basin, as well as to form comprehensive economic, social and cultural partnerships between European and Mediterranean countries.

Masadeh, born in Jordan in 1969, holds a PhD from King’s College London. He has several publications in the legal field.

He is also a member of the boards of major companies such as Royal Jordanian as well as international institutions such as the World Trade Law Association in London and the World Bank International Centre for Settlement of Disputes.

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