By Sami Zaptia.
London, 13 January 2021:
Sources in the UN Security Council announced that the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, is considering nominating the Slovak Jan Kubis (Kubiš) to succeed Ghassan Salame as UNSMIL head.
The news was reported by the Tripoli-based official state news agency, LANA.
Kubiš, born in 1952 in Slovakia, is UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon. He brings with him many years of experience in diplomacy, foreign security policy, and international economic relations, both internationally and in his own country.
He served as:
- Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), from 2015 to 2018
- Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) from 2011 to 2015
- Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe from 2009 to 2011
- Minister for Foreign Affairs of Slovakia from 2006 to 2009
- Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe from 2007 to 2008
- Secretary-General of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) from 1999 to 2005
- The European Union’s Special Representative for Central Asia with the office in Brussels
- The Personal Representative of the Chairman-in-Office of OSCE for Central Asia
- The United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Tajikistan and Head of the United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan from 1998 to 1999
- The Director of OSCE’s Conflict Prevention Centre
- Worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the former Czechoslovakia from 1976 to 1992 and thereafter at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia.
- In 1993 he served as Permanent Representative of Slovakia to the United Nations Office
- And other International Organizations in Geneva.
Kubiš is a graduate in international economic relations of the Moscow State Institute of International Affairs and speaks Slovak, Czech, English, Russian and basic French.
Born in 1952, he is married and has one daughter.
