Exclusive: UK leans towards backing UAE's Lana Nusseibeh for UN secretary-general

The United Kingdom is leaning towards backing Emirati diplomat Lana Nusseibeh as secretary-general of the United Nations, Middle East Eye can reveal. Nusseibeh's candidacy has drawn controversy over the United Arab Emirates' role in Sudan’s civil war, where it is accused of supporting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, whose mass killings UN investigators say bear the “hallmarks of genocide”. The UAE denies the allegations. Her candidacy has also drawn criticism over the UAE's close ties with Israel. Numerous sources close to the British government told Middle East Eye the UK - a permanent member of the UN - is leaning towards supporting Nusseibeh's candidacy for the role, although a final decision has not yet been made. MEE has approached the British Foreign Office for comment but has not received a reply by the time of publication. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters This comes amid a major row in Britain after Manchester City Football Club, owned by Emirati royal and vice-president Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nayhan, was found last month to have breached 114 Premier League financial rules by disguising more than £830m ($1.1bn) in illicit funding. The club denies the claims and Emirati officials have since reportedly threatened to cancel investments in Britain over "the Premier League’s actions". Multiple sources said that if the UK backs Nusseibeh as UN secretary-general, it might win the country some goodwill with the UAE at a time when relations are fraught. If selected Nusseibeh, 48, would be the first woman to lead the UN and its second Arab secretary-general, after Egypt's Boutros Boutros-Ghali. Her entry into the race last week followed six informal straw polls in which no candidate secured the backing of the five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN: Britain, the US, Russia, China and France. The current secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, will end his term in December. The council must agree a candidate for the 193-member General Assembly to approve, but it remains unclear whether it will do so before then. Controversial record Born in 1978, Nusseibeh worked as a Unesco consultant and an analyst at the Gulf Research Centre before becoming founding director of the UAE foreign ministry's policy planning department. She became the UAE's first female permanent representative to the UN in 2013 and served until 2024, during which time she was a vice-president of the General Assembly, president of the UN Women executive board and twice president of the Security Council. 'They're a selfish bunch': How Abu Dhabi shaped modern Manchester Read More » Nusseibeh is of Palestinian heritage and her family hails from Jerusalem. Her grandfather, Anwar Nusseibeh, was a prominent Palestinian politician who held ministerial posts in Jordan's government when it controlled the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and served as Jordan's ambassador to Britain. Colin Shindler, an emeritus professor of Israeli studies at Soas who taught her when she was a student at that university, wrote in a 2020 Jewish Chronicle column that she had completed a master's in Israeli studies. He said she'd wrote some "wonderfully insightful and incisive essays on Zionism and Israeli history", and described her as "instrumental" in the normalisation deal, known as the Abraham Accords. In September 2025, as Israel weighed annexing parts of the occupied West Bank, Nusseibeh said the UAE had always seen the accords as a way to support Palestinians and urged the Israeli government to suspend its plans. "I am standing to be secretary-general because I believe this is a moment to act with greater urgency: to act earlier, bring people together across difference, and drive the work forward until it produces concrete results," she said in a statement launching her campaign last week. Sudan atrocities On Monday, the UK announced it was sanctioning 15 senior commanders from both the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in Sudan for "suspected atrocities, including conflict-related sexual violence". This comes a year after the RSF massacred civilians in Sudan's Al Fasher. British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said: "A year on from the atrocities in El Fasher, UK-funded investigations have shown that rape and starvation are still being weaponised against the people of Sudan. "These are crimes against our humanity - the perpetrators must be held accountable and support from all external backers to the warring parties must end." UN experts and rights groups have concluded in several authoritative reports that the RSF has committed genocide and other international crimes against non-Arab communities in Darfur. There is widespread public evidence, including extensive reporting by MEE, linking the UAE with the supply of arms and other goods to the RSF, although the Emirati government, including Nusseibeh, have repeatedly denied this.