Emirati diplomat who helped deliver aid to Gaza enters UN secretary general race

Lana Nusseibeh is a senior Emirati diplomat of Palestinian heritage. She served as the UAE’s ambassador to the UN and became known for advocating the Palestinian cause and a two-state solution. She entered the contest to replace António Guterres as secretary-general, despite being a late candidate.

Her Gaza work centered on securing humanitarian aid deliveries. Brett McGurk, a former Biden administration national security adviser, credited her with helping the UAE become the largest global provider of humanitarian aid to Gaza, according to UN data. McGurk praised her relationships and ability to work across diplomatic lines.

Nusseibeh’s Gaza record has strengthened her international profile, but it has not removed the controversy around her candidacy. Human rights activists also question the UAE’s record and its alleged support for Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces. Her campaign therefore combines humanitarian credentials with serious political scrutiny.

The UN secretary-general is the United Nations’ highest-ranking official. The secretary-general leads the Secretariat, represents the organisation publicly, and helps governments address international problems through diplomacy. The role is not the same as being a world president, because governments remain the UN’s member states and control major decisions.

In practice, the secretary-general can bring crises to global attention, support negotiations, coordinate UN agencies, and press states to uphold the organisation’s principles. The office also oversees the Secretariat’s international work. Its influence depends heavily on persuasion, relationships, and the willingness of governments to cooperate.

The position matters in this contest because António Guterres is due to stand down at the end of the year. Candidates are therefore presenting competing visions for how the UN can regain trust and produce faster, more certain, and more realistic results.

The secretary-general is chosen through a two-stage process. First, the UN Security Council selects and recommends one candidate. Then the General Assembly formally appoints that person. The process is political because governments negotiate over regional balance, experience, priorities, and whether a candidate can work with powerful states.

The Security Council is central because it has fifteen members, including five permanent members. A permanent member can prevent the council from agreeing on a recommendation. Informal straw polls help members test support and identify objections before any final decision. They do not themselves appoint the secretary-general.

The current contest shows why the council matters. After six rounds of voting, no candidate had established a clear lead. The latest poll placed Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan first, but two permanent members objected. That made it harder for her to emerge as a consensus candidate and left the race open.

Six candidates are still competing to replace António Guterres. They are Lana Nusseibeh, Rebeca Grynspan, Rafael Grossi, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, Olara Otunnu, and María Fernanda Espinosa. Two previously declared candidates have withdrawn, while Nusseibeh entered late after arguing that the contest was approaching deadlock.

The council has held six rounds of voting, with the latest on 16 October. The newest straw poll put Rebeca Grynspan of Costa Rica in first place. She had support from nine Security Council members, but five members objected. The poll was also the first to show whether any permanent members objected to each candidate.

The results do not settle the contest. No one has built a clear lead, and Grynspan’s objections weaken her claim to be the candidate around whom the council can unite. Nusseibeh says this uncertainty justified her entry, while CELAC argues that her timing challenged a developing regional consensus.

The five permanent Security Council members have special power in the selection process. A candidate may attract broad support from other council members but still fail if a permanent member refuses to accept that person. This makes permanent-member objections a major test of whether a candidate can become a consensus choice.

Rebeca Grynspan’s result illustrates the mechanism. She led the latest straw poll with support from nine council members, but two unidentified permanent members objected. The wider count recorded five objections overall. Those objections do not mean she has been formally rejected, but they signal that the council may not agree on recommending her.

That uncertainty keeps the contest open. The council must eventually produce a recommendation before the General Assembly can make the appointment. If permanent members remain divided, negotiations may continue, another candidate may gain support, or the process may become more protracted before Guterres leaves office.

Nusseibeh faces criticism because of the UAE’s alleged relationship with Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, or RSF. Human rights activists point to the UAE’s domestic record and claims that it funded or supplied the group. The RSF has been accused of genocide by two successive US administrations and is blamed for killing thousands.

The UN panel of experts reported in January 2024 that allegations of weapons being smuggled from the UAE into the RSF from Chad and Darfur were credible. The criticism targets Nusseibeh because she has been one of the leading UAE diplomats denying those reports. She rejected claims of any UAE military, logistical, financial, or political support for Sudanese factions.

The dispute creates a serious challenge for her campaign. Supporters highlight her Gaza diplomacy and bridge-building, while critics question whether she can represent the UN credibly amid these allegations. The UAE says it supports forming a civilian-led government in Sudan.

The United Nations provides a forum where governments can work together on international problems, including humanitarian crises, conflict, and development. Its central purpose is collective action: states combine diplomacy, rules, resources, and institutions to achieve outcomes that individual governments may struggle to secure alone.

That system depends on trust. Governments must believe that cooperation will bring worthwhile returns, that agreements will be taken seriously, and that the organisation can act fairly and effectively. Nusseibeh’s vision statement describes the UN as a wager in which states give up a little today to gain more together over time. If that bargain seems unreliable, cooperation becomes harder.

Her campaign argues that states still need partnership but no longer trust its results. She says the UN must rebuild confidence through faster, more certain, and more realistic results. The secretary-general’s ability to build bridges and persuade governments will therefore shape whether the organisation can act effectively.