Lana Nusseibeh Unveils Vision for UN Leadership and Restoring Trust

Emirati diplomat Lana Zaki Nusseibeh, the United Arab Emirates' candidate for the next Secretary-General of the United Nations, presented her vision for leading the international organization, emphasizing that restoring trust in international cooperation requires implementing agreements and achieving concrete results for states and peoples. This was stated during an interactive dialogue held by the UN General Assembly, with the participation of representatives from member states and civil society, as part of the selection process for the next Secretary-General. She answered questions regarding her experience and priorities in the areas of peace, development, human rights, and organizational reform.

Regarding conflict files, Nusseibeh called for early diplomacy to prevent escalation and to build on possible understandings, such as local ceasefires, prisoner exchanges, and opening food and medicine corridors, viewing them as steps that protect lives and pave the way for broader settlements. This approach extends to development and institutional management, by linking programs to national priorities of countries, improving resource utilization, and clarifying outcomes compared to costs, thereby enhancing the United Nations' ability to fulfill its mandates and demonstrating the value of investing in its work.

Nusseibeh, who previously served as the UAE's Permanent Representative to the United Nations for more than a decade, relies on her experience in negotiation and consensus-building to present a concept for the role of the Secretary-General based on bringing together different parties and offering practical options to help them reach agreements and monitor their implementation. Her vision places addressing the crisis of trust at the forefront of priorities, starting from the premise that states become more willing to cooperate when they see a clear return on the commitments and concessions they make. Therefore, she proposes focusing the organization's efforts where it can have the greatest impact and measuring its performance by what is achieved on the ground.