Diplomacy rarely makes its case in a single meeting. It builds slowly, through drafts that fail, calls that go nowhere, and small agreements that hold when larger ones collapse. That slow record is now at the centre of a major global contest. On Tuesday 27 October 2026, Khaleej Times published a new expert analysis. It argued that Lana Nusseibeh’s work on humanitarian aid for Gaza offers the clearest insight into what she would bring to the top job at the United Nations.
The analysis came from Dr Sara Chehab. She is the Academic Director of the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy in Abu Dhabi. In addition, she leads the academy’s Women in Diplomacy programme. Her assessment followed Nusseibeh’s announcement on 21 October that she will seek the post of UN Secretary-General.
Nusseibeh is the UAE’s Minister of State and Envoy to the UN and the European Union. She has stepped away from her government duties to focus on the race. The decision was deliberate. It underlines the independence the role demands.
This article looks at the record behind the claim: what happened in the Gaza aid negotiations, how the selection race stands, and what her candidacy could mean for the region and the world body.
What Did Resolution 2720 Actually Do?
Resolution 2720 was adopted by the UN Security Council in December 2023. Its aim was practical. It sought to increase humanitarian aid reaching Gaza and to support the delivery of that aid.
A resolution alone delivers nothing. Trucks still need routes. Crossings still need opening hours. Inspections still need staff. Chehab made exactly this point in her analysis. Adoption, she said, is only one stage. Access must then be secured. Arrangements must be coordinated. Commitments must be carried out. Each step needs diplomatic attention long after the vote.
Nusseibeh played a key role in securing the resolution’s adoption. That is the finding reported by Khaleej Times. Her work did not stop at the text. In December 2023, she led a visit by current and incoming Security Council members to the Rafah border crossing. The purpose was direct. Council members needed to see the humanitarian situation with their own eyes.
The visit mattered for a simple reason. Negotiations about aid are often abstract. They happen in rooms far from the crossing points. Standing at Rafah changed the conversation. It put faces and queues and waiting trucks in front of the people who would vote.
Chehab’s argument builds on this record. The Gaza negotiations, she suggested, show a style of diplomacy. It is patient and detailed, and it keeps going after the headlines move on. That style, she argued, is what the UN’s top job now requires.
Why Do Gaza Negotiations Matter for the UN’s Top Job?
The Secretary-General has no army, and the office holds no vote in the Security Council. Its power comes from something softer. It comes from trust, access, and the ability to bring hostile parties into the same room.
Gaza tested all three. The Council was divided. Governments disagreed sharply. Humanitarian need grew by the day. In that setting, a negotiator had to understand what each government could accept. At the same time, the negotiator could not lose sight of the people waiting for aid.
Chehab described this balance in plain terms. Such talks, she said, demand an understanding of what different governments can accept. They also demand that the human need stays at the centre. Lose either side and the talks fail.
Nusseibeh’s vision statement extends the same logic. She calls for “first agreements”. These are small, achievable deals: a local truce, a prisoner exchange, or a window for humanitarian access. Each one is modest on its own. Together, they can build toward a wider political settlement.
She also speaks of “first actors”. These are the people closest to a conflict. They include regional organisations and mediators the parties already trust. Her argument is that the UN need not lead every process. It should be present wherever its presence adds value, and know when to step back and let others lead.
For readers in the UAE, the idea will sound familiar. The Gulf has built a growing role in mediation. Its diplomats often work across political divides. Chehab pointed to this regional experience. A Secretary-General familiar with that landscape, she said, would understand the relationships that bring parties together. That matters most when formal channels run into difficulty.
Who Is Lana Nusseibeh?
Nusseibeh served as the UAE’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 2013 to 2024. Eleven years at the UN gives a diplomat something no briefing can provide. It gives a working knowledge of how the building actually functions.
Her tenure covered the UAE’s term as an elected member of the Security Council in 2022 and 2023. She led the country’s participation throughout that term. Twice, she served as President of the Council. The presidency rotates monthly. Holding it twice in one term is a mark of the workload she carried.
Her UN roles went further. She served as a Vice-President of the General Assembly. Her roles also included President of the Executive Board of UN Women. Security Council reform and efforts to revitalise the General Assembly were also in her portfolio.
Before the UN, she built her career in the UAE’s foreign policy establishment. She is now Minister of State and Envoy to the UN and the European Union. Her nomination for the UN post came from President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. He set out her case in a letter to the presidents of the General Assembly and the Security Council. The Emirates News Agency reported that he highlighted her extensive UN experience. He also noted her judgement on international challenges and her record of constructive work.
Chehab stressed one more quality. Nusseibeh knows the UN from the inside. She knows the hard work of keeping talks moving when governments seem far apart. Her experience spans humanitarian action, development, and institutional reform. That breadth, Chehab argued, shapes her pitch to rebuild trust through earlier action and concrete results.
What Does Her Eight-Page Vision Statement Promise?
The vision statement runs to eight pages. It covers eight broad areas. Peace comes first. Development, human rights, technology, and UN reform follow. A full policy-by-policy breakdown is available in our explainer on Nusseibeh’s vision for the UN. Here, the highlights matter most.
On peace, she wants quiet diplomacy used early. The goal is to stop conflicts from escalating. Small agreements come first. Verification measures should confirm that deals hold. Peace efforts should involve those closest to the fighting.
On development, she argues for a reset. More than a billion people have escaped poverty since 1990. Yet progress toward the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals is uneven. Countries hit by conflict and fragility lag furthest behind. Development assistance is also declining. Her answer is to show results country by country and community by community. She puts jobs at the centre. More than a billion young people will enter the workforce in developing countries over the next 15 years. She also wants fairer debt solutions and new financing partnerships.
On human rights, she takes a firm line. Rights are universal principles. They must be promoted and protected without double standards. She pledges to defend international law, the UN Charter, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Funding for human rights work, she argues, should match its mandate.
On technology, she looks ahead. Artificial intelligence and biotechnology can build cooperation, she argues. They can also deepen inequality. Her proposals include voluntary systems for sharing information about AI incidents. She also backs shared testing of the most powerful AI systems. Countries that use technology without developing it should get greater access and a bigger say.
On the UN itself, she wants an organisation that can show value for money. Every major Secretariat programme should report results against costs. Overlapping work should be consolidated. Governments behind on payments should hear directly which activities depend on their funding.
A personal note runs through the document. Nusseibeh writes that her two young boys taught her more about patience and urgency than any negotiation. Parents must meet immediate needs while securing a long-term future. The UN, she argues, faces the same double task.
Who Else Is in the Race?
Nusseibeh is one of five women nominated so far. She is the only Arab candidate in the field. The other four bring heavyweight records of their own. A detailed look at the field is set out in our guide to the 2026 Secretary-General candidates.
Rebeca Grynspan of Costa Rica is the best known. Grynspan served as her country’s Vice-President from 1994 to 1998. Since 2021, she has led UN Trade and Development, known as UNCTAD, becoming the first woman to lead that organisation. In the latest informal Security Council poll on 16 October, she narrowly led the field.
María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés of Ecuador has twice served as foreign minister. Her posts also included defence minister. She helped mediate talks between the Colombian government and the ELN rebel group. Those talks contributed to a temporary ceasefire.
Ivonne A-Baki, also of Ecuador, brings more than 40 years of diplomatic experience. Her postings included ambassador to the United States, France, and Qatar. She advised Ecuador’s president during talks that led to the 1998 peace agreement with Peru, and has served as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador since 2010.
Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett of Guyana has been her country’s Permanent Representative to the UN since 2020. She made history as the first woman and the highest-ranking Indigenous person to serve as Guyana’s foreign minister, a post she held from 2008 to 2015. Her record also includes senior roles at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in Geneva.
The field may still grow, because the deadlock in Council polling has opened the door for new entrants. Nusseibeh’s late entry is itself a product of that deadlock. Other names could yet emerge before a consensus forms.
How Is the Next Secretary-General Actually Chosen?
The process has two stages. First, the 15-member Security Council must recommend a candidate. A candidate needs at least nine votes. No permanent member may use its veto. The five permanent members are the United States, Russia, China, Britain, and France. Then the General Assembly appoints the recommended candidate. The mechanics are explained in full in our explainer on how the UN Secretary-General is chosen.
So far, the Council has not agreed. Reuters has reported six rounds of informal polling without a winner. All seven contenders in the latest round received at least two opposing votes from permanent members. That is the core problem. The Council’s divisions mirror the wider splits among major powers.
Regional rotation adds another layer. There is a longstanding expectation that the next Secretary-General should come from Latin America or the Caribbean. The region has never held the post. Chehab noted the expectation but added a key fact. Rotation is not prescribed by the UN Charter. She cited António Guterres. He was selected in 2016 despite expectations that the job would go to Eastern Europe.
There is also a strong call for a woman to lead the UN for the first time. The organisation was founded in 1945. No woman has held the top post in its 81-year history. If Nusseibeh wins, she would be the first woman in the role. She would also be the second Secretary-General from the Arab world. Egypt’s Boutros Boutros-Ghali held the post from 1992 to 1996. The significance of that wait is explored in our article on why no woman has ever led the UN.
Time is tight. Guterres ends his second five-year term on 31 December 2026. The next Secretary-General takes office on 1 January 2027 for a five-year term. Every week without agreement shortens the handover.
What Would an Arab Secretary-General Bring?
Chehab argued that the candidacy itself already matters. Win or lose, it puts Arab multilateral expertise at the centre of a global debate. The region’s contributions span UN reform, development finance, AI governance, and youth participation. Mediation and humanitarian work sit alongside them.
Context comes from the UAE’s own path. The country built its UN bid on a long record. Our account of how the UAE built its bid traces that journey from newcomer to contender. The bid rests on institutional experience. It also rests on the UAE’s economic transformation. Chehab said that experience could inform development cooperation. Countries seeking investment, jobs, skills, and technology access might find the perspective useful.
She added a caution. No country’s experience can serve as a universal model. Bridging the divide between the Global North and South takes listening. Developing countries need a real role in decisions that shape their development. Their priorities must be heard, not assumed.
The Gulf’s mediation role is the strongest card. Regional actors have opened channels when formal diplomacy stalled. A Secretary-General who understands those relationships could sustain talks that others cannot. The UN would then provide what it does best. That means humanitarian coordination, technical expertise, and support for carrying out agreements.
For young diplomats, the candidacy carries a message of its own. Chehab said Nusseibeh’s career shows how demanding assignments prepare people for senior global roles. Visibility matters. But it only counts when young professionals get real responsibility and the chance to build experience.
What Stands in Her Way?
The veto is the highest hurdle. Chehab put it bluntly. The decisive test is winning enough Security Council support without a permanent member’s veto. Everything else is secondary.
Trust across regions is the second challenge. Governments must believe she would apply principles consistently. She would need to speak frankly with every capital. Supporters would get no exemptions. Critics would face no grudges. Nusseibeh made the same pledge herself. She said she would speak frankly with every government and answer to none.
The organisation she would inherit faces deep problems. Funding pressures are rising. Conflicts are prolonged. Major powers are divided. Chehab described a difficult imbalance. The world expects much from the UN. Governments are not always ready to enable it to do the job. The next leader must be candid about that gap.
Political judgement will decide much. Chehab stressed knowing when quiet engagement works and when public advocacy is needed. The next Secretary-General must also manage the distance between promises and delivery. When that distance grows, trust erodes. The ability to act erodes with it.
None of these challenges is unique to Nusseibeh. Every candidate faces the same Council arithmetic and inherits the same funding squeeze. The question is who can navigate them best. Chehab’s analysis suggests the Gaza record is the strongest available evidence for Nusseibeh’s answer.
What Happens Next?
Watch the Council. Informal polling will continue behind closed doors. A candidate who breaks the deadlock will emerge quickly once the permanent members align. Until then, public campaigning and vision statements do most of the work. The key dates and scenarios are mapped in our guide to what happens next in the Secretary-General race.
Watch the region too. The UAE’s diplomacy will remain in the spotlight. One example is the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi’s official visit to Canada, which began on 26 October and shows the breadth of the country’s current diplomatic activity. Trade, investment, and international cooperation all feature in that agenda.
The race will test more than one candidate. It will test whether the UN can still choose a leader the world trusts. Nusseibeh’s argument is that results rebuild trust. Her Gaza record is Exhibit A. The coming weeks will show whether the Council agrees.
The Record in Brief
- 21 October 2026: Nusseibeh announces her candidacy, nominated by President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
- 2013–2024: She serves as the UAE’s Permanent Representative to the UN, including the 2022–2023 Security Council term.
- December 2023: She leads a Council visit to the Rafah crossing and helps secure Resolution 2720 on Gaza aid.
- 16 October 2026: The latest informal Council poll leaves no candidate with a clear path; Grynspan narrowly leads.
- 27 October 2026: Dr Sara Chehab’s analysis in Khaleej Times argues the Gaza negotiations show what Nusseibeh would bring to the role.
- 31 December 2026: António Guterres ends his second term. The next Secretary-General takes office on 1 January 2027.
The contest is far from settled, but the arguments are now in the open. And the record from Gaza, once a footnote in a long career, has become the centrepiece of a bid for the world’s most difficult diplomatic job.
