EXCLUSIVE: UAE to Nominate Lana Nusseibeh for UN Secretary-General

Two sources at the United Nations said that the United Arab Emirates has begun promoting its minister and former UN ambassador, Lana Zaki Nusseibeh, as a candidate for the post of United Nations Secretary-General.

Nusseibeh currently serves as Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Political Affairs and Envoy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs with ministerial rank. She previously served as the UAE’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations from September 2013 until April 2024.

Her name came to prominence after she assumed her current post, following reports about pressure she exerted to remove the name and role of her country, the UAE, in supporting Sudan’s highly bloody civil war. This was reportedly done through the European People’s Party and far-right groups during a European Parliament resolution calling for an end to the conflict.

The UAE has emerged as the most important supporter of the Rapid Support Forces, which have committed acts of genocide in Sudan, according to several UN and human rights reports over recent years. These include allegations of training and sending Colombian mercenaries, as well as sending tons of weapons and ammunition.

Khartoum had accused Abu Dhabi before the International Court of Justice of “complicity in the commission of genocide” through its support for the Rapid Support Forces. The court rejected the case after the UAE withdrew from Article IX of the Genocide Convention, thereby avoiding prosecution by other states over genocide allegations.

The sources said the UAE is coordinating in this regard with the two other candidates backed by the United States and other countries, linking three candidates they support: Nusseibeh, Nikolay Mladenov, and Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The arrangement would allow either of the two men to appoint Nusseibeh as deputy if one of them succeeds, or allow Nusseibeh to appoint either of them as her deputy if she reaches the post.

This would also create the possibility of withdrawing any one of the three candidates in the event of a veto against them and appointing that person as deputy, if the UAE succeeds in securing the election of one of the other two candidates.

The Pundit had previously exclusively reported Washington’s nomination of Nikolay Mladenov for the post. Mladenov is close to both Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv.

UN sources believe that Russia is likely to veto him for several reasons, including Moscow’s rejection of the post being held by a citizen of a Western Eastern European country — a reference to Bulgaria, whose nationality Mladenov holds.

Russia rejects in principle the appointment of anyone from the Eastern European Group since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the accession of most of that group’s countries to the European Union and, consequently, to the Western alliance.

The sources also pointed to the possibility of one or more vetoes against Rafael Grossi for several reasons, including his close alignment with the United States and his bias toward its positions during his tenure as Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, especially regarding the Iranian file.

In addition, sources have pointed to the possibility of reservations from the United Kingdom, which holds veto power, because of Grossi’s Argentine nationality, given the continuing dispute over the Falkland Islands and Argentina’s demands to recover the islands from British occupation.