The Security Council of the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, approved the appointment of the Bulgarian, Nickolay Mladenov, as the UN special envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations to Libya, nine months after the resignation of the Lebanese Ghassan Salame, from the position of the UN envoy to Libya, in addition to the appointment of the Norwegian, Thor Winsland, as envoy to the Middle East.
“Mladenov”, who is 48 years old, has held the position of the United Nations envoy to the Middle East since 2015, and his appointment comes after the United States rejected African candidates to assume this position, imposing on its partners in the Security Council to divide the position into two parts, namely, a UN envoy and a “coordinator” for this UN mission.
According to observers; the appointment of a European figure to head the UN mission in Libya means that the position of “coordinator” of the mission will go to an African figure to satisfy the African Union; which has long stressed that there must be “African solutions to African problems.”
“Guterres” had proposed the name of the former Algerian foreign minister, Ramtane Lamamra, to succeed “Salame”, but Washington rejected this nomination, so that the Secretary-General would return and put forward the name of another African candidate, the former Ghanaian minister, Seroua Tetteh, whose candidacy met the same American rejection.
