UAE’s Nusseibeh joins deadlocked UN secretary general race

The latest:

UAE Minister of State Lana Nusseibeh is running for UN secretary general, state news agency Wam reported on Wednesday, entering a contest that the Security Council has yet to resolve. Her candidacy was submitted in a letter to the Council from President Sheikh Mohamed. Guterres leaves office at the end of the year after two terms.

Details:

• The letter: Wam said Sheikh Mohamed’s letter to the Security Council highlighted Nusseibeh’s deep experience of the United Nations, her judgment in addressing ongoing international challenges and her record of constructive work. The agency did not say when the Council would take up the nomination.
• The field: Eight candidates were already declared before Nusseibeh: Guyana’s Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan, Senegal’s Macky Sall, Ecuador’s Ivonne Baki, Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Ecuador’s Maria Fernanda Espinosa and Uganda’s Olara Otunnu.
• The deadlock: None of the declared candidates has secured enough support among Security Council members. Deliberations are continuing, with straw polls placing Grynspan as the front-runner, though two veto-holding states opposed her in the sixth round of voting.
• Her record: Nusseibeh was appointed UAE ambassador to the UN in 2013 and led the delegation through the country’s recent two-year term on the Security Council. She stepped down in mid-2024 to become Minister of State.
• Earlier career: At the UAE foreign ministry she launched the Policy Planning Department and served as its first director for three years. She also headed the ministry’s International Renewable Energy Agency campaign task force and directed research and communications at the Ministry of State for Federal National Council Affairs.
• Her pitch: Nusseibeh said she is standing because this is a moment to act earlier, bring people together across difference and drive work forward until it produces concrete results, arguing that trust erodes when the distance between promises and delivery grows.
• The platform: According to Wam, she would prioritise global peace and security, clearer priorities, leadership and resources closer to the problems the UN exists to solve, stronger accountability for results, less duplication and empowering staff in the field.
• Development and law: She said the UN development system must respond to uneven progress on the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, and that equal application of international law without double standards is necessary for the organisation’s credibility.
• The endorsement: Former US official Brett McGurk described Nusseibeh on X as a diplomat “who knows everyone and works with them” to get things done, calling her an inspired choice for what he termed an impossible job.

Background:

The secretary general is recommended by the Security Council, where any of the five permanent members can block a candidate, before approval by the General Assembly. No woman has held the post; Egypt’s Boutros Boutros-Ghali remains the only Arab to have served.

Between the lines:

The timing tracks the stalemate. With eight candidates unable to clear the Council and two veto powers already rejecting the straw-poll front-runner, a late entrant becomes viable precisely because the declared field has not converged. Nusseibeh’s years inside the building, cited in Sheikh Mohamed’s letter, are the asset being offered against a Council that has so far refused to settle.

What’s next

Watch the next Security Council straw poll for whether Nusseibeh registers support or draws a veto-power objection, and whether further late candidacies follow. Guterres’s term ends in December, narrowing the window for a recommendation.