The United Arab Emirates has nominated Lana Nusseibeh for United Nations secretary-general, according to a report from the state-owned Emirates News Agency. Nusseibeh,the minister of state in the UAE's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and her country’s first female ambassador to the UN, has been rumoured to be a potential candidate for months. She joins six other candidates vying to be the UN's next top diplomat.
The news agency wrote: “His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, submitted the nomination” as required as part of the UN secretary-general selection process. He is quoted as citing “Nusseibeh’s deep experience of the United Nations, her judgement in addressing the ongoing international challenges, and her record of constructive work”. The office of the president of the General Assembly would not confirm whether the required documentation for Nusseibeh’s nomination has been received, saying that Khalilur Rahman, who presides over the current session of the Assembly, is travelling.
Yet FRANCE 24 and PassBlue received a separate email from Teneo, a New York-based public relations company for the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, confirming Nusseibeh’s nomination. In the statement, Nusseibeh wrote, in part, “The Charter gives the Secretary-General no army and no vote. But the position, held well, entails a different kind of power.
Her independence empowers her to bring others to agreement, and that depends on trust. I will be the stubbornly optimistic, relentless diplomat I have always been in this endeavour. ... There will be no exemptions for friends and no grudges against critics.” Nusseibeh added that she had taken “a leave of absence” from her government position to focus on her candidacy.
The term of current Secretary-GeneralAntonio Guterresends on December 31, 2026, so UN member states must decide on a successor by then. Nusseibeh, born in 1978, entered the race late but as a well-known name in international circles from her time as the UAE's UN ambassador from 2013 to 2024 coupled with her country’s strong ties to the United States, a permanent member of the Security Council. Still, as a candidate, she will need to win the four other veto-wielding permanent members– Britain, China, France and Russia– to her corner and defend her candidacy as UN secretary-general against Abu Dhabi’s controversial human rights records and role in the Sudan war.
A candidate needs at least nine votes from the 15-member Security Council– and not to be vetoed by a permanent, or "P5", member, as they are called. A former diplomat from the global South told PassBlue/FRANCE 24 that Nusseibeh would not have jumped into the race at this point if she didn’t think the P5 were agreeable to her nomination. It feels like it may be a coronation,” said Richard Gowan from the International Crisis Group.
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