Morocco has expressed its support for the candidacy of UAE veteran diplomat Lana Zaki Nusseibeh for the UN Secretary General post as the term of the current UN Chief António Guterres ends December 31, 2026.
All six GCC states back her. If chosen, she would be the first woman and the first Gulf national to lead the UN. Nusseibeh voiced commitment to building international consensus, promoting “preventive diplomacy” and mediation. She also pledged to work for a strong, renewed United Nations and proposed establishing a mediation board during her first year in office.
Nusseibeh was born in Abu Dhabi in 1978. Her father, Zaki Nusseibeh (born in 1946) studied at Cambridge, moved to Abu Dhabi, and became an adviser to Sheikh Zayed and later a UAE minister of state.
Lana grew up between the UK and Abu Dhabi. She studied history at Queens’ College, Cambridge University, where she earned both a Bachelor of Arts (BA Hons) and a Master of Arts (MA Cantab)
Before New York, she set up the Foreign Ministry’s Policy Planning Department, served as UAE co-special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, was deputy sherpa at the 2011 G20, and worked with UNESCO in Paris, according to her campaign site.
From 2013 to 2024 she was the UAE’s permanent representative to the UN, the first Emirati woman in that post. She presided over the Security Council twice during the UAE’s 2022-2023 term, and also served as General Assembly vice-president and president of the UN women Executive Board.
Nusseibeh is currently serving as Minister of State at the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs (appointed September 2025). She is married and has two children.
The UAE candidacy is facing six serious contenders also vying for the UNSG job. The list of contenders includes Rafael Mariano Grossi (Argentina), Director General of IAEA, Rebeca Grynspan Mayufis (Costa Rica), UNCTAD Chief, María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés (Ecuador) – ex- Foreign Minister & Defense Minister of Ecuador, Ivonne A-Baki (Ecuador / Lebanon), Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett (Guyana) and Olara Otunnu (Uganda), Former UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict.
