UAE’s UN chief candidate silent on Kurdish state, backs Palestine

UNITED NATIONS,— Emirati diplomat Lana Nusseibeh, a candidate for the top job at the United Nations, dodged a direct question on Kurdish independence on Tuesday, even though she has openly backed a Palestinian state.

Asked by Rudaw on Tuesday whether she would back Kurdish statehood the way she has backed Palestinian independence, Nusseibeh offered no clear yes or no.

Instead, she said that as secretary-general she would address every item on the Security Council agenda under the UN Charter and the council’s mandate, and that she would support all peoples seeking freedom and dignity, in line with the Charter.

Nusseibeh, 48, has backed for Palestinian self-determination for years. In February 2024, she told the International Court of Justice that a two-state solution was necessary to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

She repeated that position Monday, after Palestine backed her UN bid, saying her career has focused on a political path that lets Palestinians and Israelis live in security and dignity.

The UAE formally put her forward last week, and all six Gulf Cooperation Council states support her run. She served as the UAE’s UN ambassador from 2013 to 2024 and now holds the title of minister of state.

A win would make her the first woman to run the UN, taking over from Antonio Guterres when his term ends this year.

Human rights monitors criticized Nusseibeh’s bid for the UN’s top job on Tuesday, pointing to her role in promoting the country’s foreign policy and her denial of UAE involvement in fueling Sudan’s conflict.

Her bid faces pushback tied to accusations that the UAE armed and backed Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, a militia blamed for mass killings in Sudan’s war.

Former Human Rights Watch director Kenneth Roth and other rights advocates called Tuesday for her candidacy to be rejected, saying she has shielded the UAE from those accusations.

The UAE rejects any claim that it supports the RSF. Nusseibeh said Sudan would rank among her top concerns in office, promising to push for accountability and a stop to the fighting.

Opponents have also set up a website called “No to Lana,” urging supporters to email national UN missions and push them to block her appointment. The campaign has driven more than 38,000 emails so far.

Observers noted that the UAE stayed silent and offered no criticism when Syrian leader Ahmad al-Sharaa’s forces attacked Kurds in Rojava, Syrian Kurdistan, in January 2026. The UAE was also silent on the massacre of Druze and attacks on Alawites in 2025.

That month, Islamist militias under Syria’s interim government killed Kurdish civilians in Aleppo and in Rojava. But the UAE was quick to condemn Iran, its foe, after a drone strike targeted Kurds in Iraq, a sharp contrast to its silence on the Syrian attacks on Kurds.

A political analyst Henase Karim told iKurd News “how Nusseibeh could be nominated for the role, if she is clearly nationalist and favors Arab and Islamic interests,”

(With files from Reuters | Rudaw | Agencies)