Lana Zaki Nusseibeh, representative to the United Nations of the United Arab Emirates, speaks during a UN Security Council meeting at UN headquarters on February 23, 2023.
(Beirut) – Lana Zaki Nusseibeh, a long-serving UAE diplomat and foreign affairs official, has an extensive record of denying and whitewashing the country’s rights abuses in Sudan and Yemen, Human Rights Watch said today. On October 21, 2026, the UAE formally nominated Nusseibeh to be the new United Nations secretary-general.
“For years, Lana Nusseibeh has used her position to vehemently deny and divert attention from the UAE’s war crimes in Yemen and support for the abusive Rapid Support Forces in Sudan,” said Bruno Stagno Ugarte, chief advocacy officer at Human Rights Watch. “Her disinformation about the UAE’s rights record, particularly her dismissal of the UN’s own reports documenting the UAE’s links to the RSF, has seriously undermined justice and accountability for the victims.”
Nusseibeh has repeatedly denied that the UAE provides military support to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan, while refusing to address clear evidence to the contrary. The RSF, engaged in a conflict with the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), is responsible for widespread war crimes and crimes against humanity, including as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing in the Darfur region. The United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan concluded that their assault on the North Darfur capital of El Fasher “bore the hallmarks of genocide.”
In September 2024, Nusseibeh said in a letter to the editor of The Economist that, “[T]he UAE is not providing weapons or any other support to the Rapid Support Forces or any of the warring parties in Sudan.” The letter followed the publication of the first UN Panel of Experts on Sudan’s report, which included conclusions of “credible allegations” that the UAE was providing milita
