Nusseibeh’s bid to lead UN sparks backlash over accusations of covering up Sudan genocide

Accused of covering up the UAE’s support for a militia implicated in genocide in Sudan, Lana Nusseibeh is now seeking to lead the United Nations, drawing fierce opposition from human rights advocates and commentators.

The UAE has nominated its former UN ambassador to succeed António Guterres as secretary-general. Her candidacy has won the backing of Gulf governments, while Britain is reportedly considering supporting her. But her defence of Abu Dhabi’s conduct in Sudan has prompted critics to question whether she can credibly lead the organisation.

The backlash centres on Nusseibeh’s fitness for the job, given her defence of the UAE against allegations that it supplied weapons and mercenaries to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the paramilitary group fighting Sudan’s army. 

UN investigators found that the UAE backed RSF carried out atrocities in El Fasher which bore the hallmarks of genocide. UN also documenting mass killings, sexual violence and attacks intended to destroy non-Arab communities. Human Rights Watch has called for an investigation into the UAE’s potential complicity.

Nusseibeh has publicly rejected allegations of Emirati involvement. The UAE denies providing military, financial or logistical support to any faction in Sudan and says it supports a negotiated settlement. UAE foreign ministry.

Former UN human rights official Craig Mokhiber accused her of “running cover for the genocide in Sudan”. He also criticised her promotion of normalisation with Israel and the Abraham Accords, accompanying his post with a photograph he identified as showing her alongside Israeli diplomat Gilad Erdan.

“A truly terrible candidate,” he concluded. Mokhiber also raised Nusseibeh’s alleged connections to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, claiming that documents in the Epstein files showed her helping arrange his visit to the UAE and supporting a university application by the son of his associate, Terje Rød-Larsen. Epstein had pleaded guilty to offences including procuring a minor for prostitution. 

Lana Nusseibeh (pictured here with Israel regime ambassador Gilad Erdan) who is being pushed by US-Israel aligned Gulf monarchies and several US and Western figures to become the next UN Secretary-General, is most known in diplomatic circles for running cover for the genocide in Sudan and for pushing to normalize the Israeli apartheid regime as it perpetrates a genocide in Palestine. Fluent in Hebrew and with a master’s degree in Israel studies, she has been a key actor in pushing the treacherous “Abraham Accords” and Trump’s colonial “Board of Peace.” In the Epstein Files, she is seen helping Epstein (and Israel) collaborator Terje Larsen to get his son into NYU, and helping Epstein himself to visit the UAE. A truly terrible candidate.

— Craig Mokhiber (@CraigMokhiber) October 26, 2026

Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch, accused Nusseibeh of defending Emirati involvement in atrocities in both Sudan and Yemen.

READ: International statement warns of imminent famine in Sudan

“Lana Nusseibeh, the United Arab Emirates diplomat who is suddenly being promoted as a candidate for UN secretary general, hasn’t only lied about the UAE role in sending arms and mercenaries to the genocidal Rapid Support Forces paramilitary in Sudan. She has also lied and covered up the UAE role in killing civilians in Yemen,” Roth wrote, linking to Emirati statements and human rights reporting.

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. That is how we rebuild trust in the United Nations and ensure it delivers meaningful change for the people it exists to serve.

My vision: https://t.co/G449B8vaTI

— Lana Nusseibeh (@Lana_Nusseibeh) October 22, 2026

In a separate post recalling the killings in El Fasher, Roth again accused the UAE of supplying the RSF and condemned its attempt to secure the UN leadership for Nusseibeh. 

Nesrine Malik, the Sudanese-born British journalist and Guardian columnist, condemned the bid: “The notion that this woman can lead the UN is a scandal in itself.”

The front page of the Guardian journal today.

‘The notion that this woman can lead the UN is a scandal in itself.’ https://t.co/KG2sOivFSK

— Nesrine Malik (@NesrineMalik) October 26, 2026

In an accompanying post, Malik said “The appointment of Nusseibeh, who has been the face of the UAE’s Sudan strategy, would be a slap in the face to the millions of people suffering the horrors of war, and a dereliction of duty towards those thousands who have already been killed.”

Trita Parsi, executive vice-president of the Quincy Institute, said “No UNSG candidate, save potentially Grossi, has generated as strong a negative reaction in the NGO community as the UAE’s Lana Nusseibeh”. 

No UNSG candidate, save potentially Grossi, has generated as strong a negative reaction in the NGO community as the UAE’s Lana Nusseibeh, as reflected in this piece…

— Trita Parsi (@tparsi) October 26, 2026

Nusseibeh has entered the race to succeed António Guterres, whose second five-year term as UN secretary-general ends on 31 December. His successor is due to take office on 1 January 2027, following appointment by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council. Any of the council’s five permanent members can block a candidate.

Her rivals include UN trade chief and former Costa Rican vice-president Rebeca Grynspan, International Atomic Energy Agency director-general Rafael Grossi of Argentina, and Guyana’s UN ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett. Also standing are former Ecuadorian foreign minister María Fernanda Espinosa, Ecuadorian diplomat Ivonne A-Baki and former UN under-secretary-general Olara Otunnu of Uganda. 

Despite the backlash, Nusseibeh has secured the endorsement of all six Gulf Cooperation Council states. There are reports that Britain, which holds a permanent Security Council seat, is leaning towards supporting her, although no final decision has been made.

READ: Sudan files genocide case against UAE at ICJ