Key takeaways
- The UAE formally nominated Lana Nusseibeh for UN Secretary-General on 21 and 22 October, and the Security Council postponed its straw poll.
- Her entry follows six inconclusive straw polls in which the three leading candidates each drew two discourage votes from permanent members.
- Supporters call her a pragmatic fixer, while Amnesty and the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab object over UAE links to Sudan's RSF.
The United Arab Emirates formally nominated Lana Nusseibeh, its Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, as the next UN Secretary-General on 21 and 22 October 2026. UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan submitted the nomination to the presidents of the General Assembly, Khalilur Rahman, and of the Security Council. Nusseibeh, 48, said she had taken immediate leave from her ministerial post and from her role as special envoy to the UN and the European Union.
The state news agency WAM announced the move. In New York, the public relations firm Teneo sent her candidate vision statement to diplomatic reporters, including those at FRANCE 24 and PassBlue. Within 24 hours, all six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, had endorsed her. The Security Council postponed a straw poll set for Friday 23 October into the following week. The delay allows for the formal introduction of her nomination and for expected General Assembly dialogues.
A race that had stalled
Her entry follows six secret straw polls that produced no consensus candidate. The 16 October poll was the first to use colour-coded ballots. They separated the five permanent members with veto power (the P5: the United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia and China) from the ten elected members. The three leading contenders each drew two P5 "discourage" votes:
- Rebeca Grynspan of Costa Rica, who received nine encourage votes overall.
- Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett of Guyana.
- Rafael Mariano Grossi of Argentina.
Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet withdrew in September. Macky Sall of Senegal dropped out after the 16 October poll.
The arithmetic is strict. A nominee needs at least nine of the 15 Council votes and no veto from a permanent member before the General Assembly votes. Secretary-General António Guterres leaves office on 31 December 2026, when his second and final term ends, according to the UN, and his successor is due to take office on 1 January 2027.
Nusseibeh also cuts across two conventions. Latin America and the Caribbean were widely seen as next in line, and the region has not held the post since Javier Pérez de Cuéllar in 1991. Ricard Moscoso, Panama's deputy UN representative, publicly defended that turn and demanded full public scrutiny in the General Assembly. No woman has led the UN in its 81 years. Nusseibeh is the fourth woman in the current field.
Observers are reading: how the case for and against Nusseibeh is set out, with the evidence on UAE arms and RSF links and her stated defence.
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What comes next
Rahman has said Nusseibeh must face interactive dialogues in the General Assembly, where all 193 member states can question candidates. The postponed straw poll will show how the permanent members rate her. Her rivals each fell short because of two P5 discourage votes. A candidate with no discourage votes from the P5 would clear the main obstacle. The Council had not set a new date beyond the following week.
The calendar adds pressure. Guterres's term ends in just over two months. Supporters argue that a candidate acceptable in Washington, Beijing and Moscow is what a divided Council needs. Opponents say her appointment would create a conflict of interest, arguing that the UN should not be led by an official of a country that, in their words, made the El Fasher massacre militarily possible. Both arguments will be tested over the coming weeks, first in the Council chamber and then before the General Assembly.
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