EXCLUSIVE: Washington Floats Mladenov as Candidate for UN Secretary-General

Three sources at the United Nations told The Pundit that the United States is considering Nickolay Mladenov as a candidate for UN Secretary-General, as the race to succeed António Guterres begins to take shape ahead of the end of his term in January.

A senior source at a Western mission to the United Nations said US representatives have begun floating Mladenov’s name as a potential candidate, seeking to gauge support for him before the formal selection process begins and to assess whether any country might exercise a veto against him.

A second source, a senior UN official, confirmed that Mladenov’s name had been raised by American officials in meetings and discussions in New York.

A third UN source also confirmed that Washington has been promoting Mladenov’s candidacy, while noting that International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi has also been working to secure US backing for the post, having already formally declared his candidacy.

Mladenov, a Bulgarian former minister and diplomat, currently serves as High Representative of the Board of Peace in the Gaza Strip — a body established by US President Donald Trump in January following the signing of the Gaza ceasefire agreement in the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh last October.

He previously served as Bulgaria’s Minister of Defence and Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 2013, then-Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed him as Special Representative for Iraq and head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq. He later served as UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and as the Secretary-General’s Envoy to the Quartet.

After leaving his UN post, Mladenov joined the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, which was founded with support from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, widely regarded as the most prominent pro-Israel lobbying organization in the United States. He later moved to the United Arab Emirates, where he became director-general of the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy in Abu Dhabi.

During his time in the UAE, Mladenov was among those who coordinated with Jared Kushner in preparing for the normalization agreements between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco. The Trump administration described him at the time as a trusted source of “constructive feedback” throughout the negotiations.

Ambassador Moataz Khalil, Egypt’s former Permanent Representative to the United Nations, told The Pundit that during his tenure as Egypt’s Permanent Representative in New York, in 2013, Mladenov was appointed as Special Representative of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for Iraq and head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq. He was doing his job quietly. “I did not meet him personally. I do not remember that he left a particular mark in this mission.”

Khalil added, “Later, after I left, he was appointed as UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, a post he held for almost six years, from February 2015 to the end of 2020. During his time as special coordinator, the UN role in the peace process was barely visible. He was praised by Israel for ‘sticking to professional matters rather than running public propaganda campaigns’. He was also one of very few UN officials to openly endorse the Abraham Accords.”

Khalil believes these were his main credentials for his current post with the Trump Board of Peace, and probably for his candidature for the post of UN Secretary-General — if confirmed. “It remains to be seen whether he can produce any balanced outcome in his current, quasi-impossible mission to implement the highly imbalanced Trump 20-point peace plan for Gaza.”

Since assuming his current role in the Gaza Strip, Mladenov has focused much of his effort on disarming Palestinian armed factions, while making little visible effort to halt Israeli violations or highlight them in his Security Council briefings. He has stated that disarmament is the foundation of everything, despite Israel’s failure to meet its obligations under the first phase of the agreement before moving to the second phase, which concerns the weapons held by Palestinian factions.

According to the Gaza Government Media Office, Israel has violated the agreement 3,269 times since it was signed approximately 250 days ago. Israeli forces have killed nearly 1,000 civilians and wounded 3,138 others, in addition to abducting 95 more. Israel has also blocked the vast majority of aid from entering the Strip, permitting only 36% of the agreed number of trucks — 52,740 out of 147,000 — to enter Gaza.

The office also said Israel has prevented most wounded Palestinians from travelling abroad for medical treatment, as stipulated under the agreement. Only 6,845 patients out of an agreed 19,600 — around 35% — have been allowed to leave.

Despite this, Mladenov’s briefing made no mention of these figures, while the weapons of Palestinian armed factions were mentioned twenty times.

Mladenov was also named in the Pandora Papers — the largest coordinated leak of offshore financial records in history — as one of two Bulgarian politicians who had held hidden offshore assets. Documents from the leaked files show that Mladenov registered a company named Afron Enterprises Ltd in the Seychelles through the Swiss intermediary SFM Corporate Services S.A. on 9 August 2013, seven days after he was officially appointed as UN Special Representative for Iraq.

When contacted by investigators at BIRD, the Bulgarian investigative outlet that partnered with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists on the Pandora Papers, Mladenov said he had intended to establish a consultancy before his UN appointment, and that the company never conducted business or handled any financial flows. However, the UN Secretary-General’s office confirmed to BIRD that Afron Enterprises had never been declared in Mladenov’s mandatory UN asset disclosures.

The candidates who have so far formally declared their bids for the post include Michelle Bachelet, the former President of Chile; Rafael Grossi of Argentina, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency; Rebeca Grynspan of Costa Rica; Macky Sall, the former President of Senegal; and María Fernanda Espinosa of Ecuador.

Informal consultations and straw polls on the selection of the next Secretary-General are expected to continue through October, ahead of the Security Council’s formal recommendation of a candidate. To advance, a candidate must secure at least nine votes among the Council’s fifteen members and avoid a veto from any of the five permanent members. The selected name is then forwarded to the United Nations General Assembly for confirmation.