GENEVA: The 10th United Nations secretary-general will be chosen this year for a five-year term starting on January 1, 2027. A second informal poll took place on Friday and showed Guyana’s Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett was narrowly ahead, according to sources close to the process.
Here are the candidates so far running to take over from outgoing UN chief Antonio Guterres.
Grossi, a 65-year-old career diplomat from Argentina, has been a high-profile director general of the UN nuclear watchdog for the last six years.
While the International Atomic Energy Agency has long policed Iran’s nuclear program, Grossi led negotiations aimed at salvaging parts of a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers after US President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of it in 2018. His critics say he has gone too far in trying to cut deals with Iran.
A multilingual father of eight, Grossi has raised both his and the IAEA’s profile with his shuttle diplomacy in international crises.
