Ben Mustapha was born in
Tunis on 28 July 1938. He studied economics and graduated in 1961 from the
Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva. Ben Mustapha entered in 1962 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He became a
charge d'affaires in Tripoli in 1970, later in 1975 as a cabinet attaché to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was made consul general of Tunisia in Lyon then in Palermo in 1979. He was later, in 1982, appointed ambassador to Lebanon, when the country was in the midst of civil war. Ben Mustapha was made ambassador in Amman in 1985, and became High Representative of Tunisia in Tripoli in 1988, then secretary of state to the minister of foreign affairs in charge of Maghreb Affairs in 1991, ambassador to Rome in 1997 and ambassador to the
United Nations. == Personal life and death ==