UN chooses a new envoy for Lebanon

NEW YORK - UNITED NATIONS--Poland’s ambassador to the UN has been chosen to be the new envoy for Lebanon, diplomatic sources said on Monday.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “has informed the Security Council of his intention to appoint Joanna Wronecka, as UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon and the Council has given its ‘consent,’” one diplomat said, speaking anonymously.

There was no objection from the Security Council and a green light for the nomination was given late last week, other diplomats said.

The formal appointment will be announced soon.

Wronecka will succeed Slovakia’s Jan Kubis, who recently took office as the new UN envoy for Libya.

The Polish diplomat, 63, graduated from the Faculty of Arabic Studies at the University of Warsaw. She has been studying in Algeria, Egypt and France as well. In 1985, she delivered her PhD thesis on Arab-Muslim philosophy. In the 1980s, she worked at the Polish Academy of Sciences.

Wronecka has spent much of her decades-long career in northern Africa and the Middle East.

In 1993, she joined the Polish diplomatic service, starting from the post of an expert. In 1996–1998 she was deputy director of the Department of the United Nations System and director of the Department of Africa and the Middle East (1998–1999) and Minister’s Secretariat (2003–2005).

She served as Poland ambassador to Egypt (1999–2003), Morocco accredited to Mauritania and Senegal (2005–2010). From January 2011 to August 2015, she held the position of Head of the European Union Delegation to Jordan. 

On 26 November 2015, she was appointed Under Secretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland responsible for development aid, cooperation with African and Middle-East countries.

Since 2017, she has been in New York, where she was tasked by the UN General Assembly with reviving endless negotiations on reforming the Security Council to expand it to include new members. She ended her term on 31 May 2021.