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The race to run the United Nations has a major new entrant. The United Arab Emirates formally nominated Lana Zaki Nusseibeh for secretary-general on October 21, making the veteran diplomat one of seven candidates vying to succeed António Guterres, whose second term ends on December 31, 2026. As Gulf News and the Khaleej Times reported, she has taken a leave of absence from the UAE government to campaign full-time — and if she wins, she would be the first woman ever to hold the job.
Who is Lana Nusseibeh?
Nusseibeh is no outsider to the building she wants to run. She served as the UAE's permanent representative to the United Nations for more than a decade, from 2013 to 2024, and during that time she held some of the UN's most senior elected roles: vice president of the General Assembly, president of the UN Women executive board, and twice president of the Security Council during the UAE's 2022–2023 Council term. She is currently the UAE's minister of state and its envoy to the UN and the European Union.
Her nomination came in a letter from UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to the presidents of the General Assembly and the Security Council. Launching her candidacy, Nusseibeh said: "I have spent much of my professional life working in and around the United Nations, and I have seen first-hand what determined diplomacy can achieve — countries with profound differences finding common ground, and agreement where people said agreement was impossible." Her pitch centers on conflict prevention, keeping diplomatic channels open, and making the organization deliver concrete results. "I wish to offer myself to this office as I would serve it," she said, "speaking frankly with every government and answering to none."
How the next UN chief actually gets chosen
The selection is one of the world's most unusual elections — and the real power sits with very few people. Under the UN Charter, the General Assembly appoints the secretary-general, but only after the 15-member Security Council recommends a candidate. That recommendation needs at least nine votes, and any one of the five permanent members — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, or the United States — can veto it. In practice, the P5's private preferences decide the outcome long before any public vote.
The field is currently tested through informal straw polls. At the sixth such poll on October 16, with seven candidates in the running, Costa Rica's Rebeca Grynspan led with nine "encourage" votes — but no candidate had the backing of all five permanent members, and an expected October 23 poll has been postponed. Nusseibeh enters late, which is both her challenge and her opening: with no consensus candidate, a heavyweight diplomat with P5 relationships and a Gulf state's full backing is a serious proposition. The successor takes office in January 2027 — and for the first time in the UN's 80-year history, the smart money is on that successor being a woman.
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