UAE Minister of State Lana Nusseibeh Enters Race for UN Secretary-General
Senior UAE diplomat Lana Nusseibeh entered the race to become the next United Nations secretary-general on Wednesday, October 21, Reuters reported exclusively, injecting a prominent Middle Eastern candidate into a contest that has struggled to produce a consensus choice among the Security Council's most powerful members. Nusseibeh, a former UAE ambassador to the UN for more than a decade and now the UAE minister of state for foreign affairs, told Reuters she would seek to restore the world body's role as a diplomatic problem-solver at a time of mounting global crises. '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 said shortly before going public with her candidacy.
Nusseibeh, 48, is a late entrant to the race. She said she was approached by multiple countries during the last UN General Assembly to put herself forward, and she previously led the UAE's successful campaign for election to the Security Council. An informal Security Council poll had placed former Costa Rican Vice President Rebeca Grynspan as the narrow frontrunner, sources have said, but last week she and all other candidates received two or more opposing votes from the five permanent members. Council members are negotiating over whether to hold another poll this Friday or at a later stage.
Her UN tenure overlapped with the outbreak of the Gaza war in 2023, when she secured the adoption of Resolution 2720 paving the way for the delivery of humanitarian aid, arranging a visit by council members to the Rafah border crossing. A Nusseibeh victory would make her the second UN chief from the Middle East, after Egypt's Boutros Boutros-Ghali, and the first woman to lead the UN, though she said she was not running on her gender: 'I'm running because I am stubbornly optimistic about the future of the United Nations.' (Compiled from Reuters exclusive, October 21)
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 纽约联合国总部实景。图片来源：Wikimedia Commons 文件 Shore of the East River with Headquarters of the United Nations, New York City, 20231005 1131 2224.jpg，Jakub Hałun 摄，CC BY 4.0 授权
