United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has decided to appoint Gaza aid coordinator Sigrid Kaag as the world body’s interim special coordinator for the Middle East peace process and the personal representative of the secretary-general to the PLO and the Palestinian Authority.
Kaag will continue in her current role as U.N. senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, spokesman Farhan Haq said on Saturday.
Kaag will replace Norway’s Tor Wennesland, who has held the post of special coordinator for the Middle East peace process since 2021.
In April, Kaag told the Security Council that her team has had “very constructive cooperation” in dialogue with the Israeli government.
On June 11, Kaag announced she would be moving her residence and offices to the war-torn coastal enclave later that month. However, two months later, a spokesperson for Kaag told JNS she had yet to do so.
In September, she sat down with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly annual debate to discuss the situation in Gaza. Kaag’s office did not respond to messages seeking comment on how the U.N. views the Islamic Republic’s role in improving the humanitarian situation in the Strip.
Kaag, who previously served as the Netherlands’ minister for foreign affairs, admitted to parliament in 2020 that her ministry had paid part of the salaries of two terrorists involved in the murder of an Israeli teen.
Before joining the Dutch government in 2017, she served in senior United Nations roles, including at the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
Kaag is married to a former senior Palestinian Authority official who was close to arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat.
