UAE Nominates Lana Nusseibeh for UN Secretary-General

The race to lead the United Nations gained a new contender this week. The United Arab Emirates nominated Lana Nusseibeh, its former ambassador to the UN and now its minister of state for foreign affairs, to succeed Antonio Guterres as secretary-general.

The UAE's Foreign Ministry announced the nomination on Wednesday, 21 October, citing what it called her extensive experience with the United Nations and her wisdom in dealing with current international challenges, according to a Reuters report carried by the Saudi Gazette. Her entry arrives at a delicate point in a contest that, so far, has not produced a consensus choice among the five permanent members of the Security Council.

If she succeeds, Nusseibeh would become the first woman to hold the post since the UN was founded in 1945.

A career built inside the UN system

Nusseibeh, 48, was the first woman to represent the UAE as permanent representative to the United Nations, a post she held from 2013 to 2024. That period included the country's two year term on the Security Council, and she led the UAE's successful campaign to win that seat.

During the council term, she secured the adoption of Resolution 2720, which opened the way for humanitarian aid deliveries into Gaza after the war broke out in 2023. She has said she won support for the resolution by arranging for council members to visit the Rafah border crossing and see the situation on the ground for themselves. She describes the approach as part of what she calls her "creative entrepreneurial diplomacy."

Euronews reported that she grew up between Abu Dhabi and the United Kingdom, in a family of well known political figures, and that she is credited with raising the UAE's profile during her years in New York. Diplomats there describe her as a competent manager, according to Reuters.

Why she entered late

Nusseibeh told Reuters that several countries approached her during the last UN General Assembly and urged her to stand. She framed her candidacy around renewal. "It's recognized today that we need someone who offers generational change for the organization," she said.

She also set out what she sees as the core job. "It's clear that today we need a secretary-general that can recommit to the future of multilateralism and the future of the United Nations as a problem-solver rather than as a spectator to the world's crises," she told Reuters.

Euronews reported that her vision statement places peace and security at the centre, while promising results on development and human rights and a reform of the organisation around focus and results.

Not running on gender

The prospect of a first female secretary-general has shaped much of the coverage of this race. Nusseibeh has been careful about how she frames it.

"I think it would be great if the next secretary-general was a woman but I'm not running because I'm a woman; I'm running because I am stubbornly optimistic about the future of the United Nations," she said, adding that the job needs someone relentless in the pursuit of diplomacy.

A win would also make her the first secretary-general of Palestinian descent and the second from the Arabic speaking world, after Egypt's Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

The field she joins

According to Euronews, an informal straw poll in the Security Council last week gave former Costa Rican Vice President Rebeca Grynspan, now secretary-general of UN Trade and Development, a narrow lead over Guyana's former foreign minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett and Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

That poll did not settle the race. Reuters reported that Grynspan and every other candidate received two or more discouraging votes from the five permanent members: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. Euronews said the result effectively reopened the contest to new entrants.

Other declared candidates named by Euronews include former Ecuadorian foreign minister María Fernanda Espinosa, former UN under secretary-general Olara Otunnu of Uganda, and Ecuadorian diplomat Ivonne A-Baki.

How the choice is made

The rules give the Security Council the decisive role. A winning candidate needs at least nine votes from the council's 15 members and no veto from any permanent member. The council has until the end of December to settle on a successor, and the General Assembly then confirms the appointment.

Council members were still negotiating the timing of the next straw poll when Nusseibeh declared, according to Reuters.

A test for women in diplomacy

For women in leadership, the significance is plain. The United Nations has had nine secretaries-general, all men. This year several women sit near the top of the field, and the newest entrant is a diplomat whose career has been defined by firsts.

Whether the permanent members can agree on any candidate, woman or man, is the open question. What is already clear is that the race to lead the world body now includes a candidate who has spent most of her professional life inside it.