United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres named former Dutch foreign minister Sigrid Kaag as the new UN Middle East envoy, a UN spokesperson said on Friday.
Kaag will also continue in her current role as the UN senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, said Deputy UN spokesperson Farhan Haq.
The spokesperson said Kaag’s appointment as Middle East envoy was temporary while Guterres continued to search for a permanent replacement for Tor Wennesland, who stepped down at the end of last year after four years in the job.
Kaag has held several positions across the UN and the Dutch government, including United Nations Special Coordinator for Syria and later Lebanon.
Following her time at the UN, she held several senior ministerial positions in the Netherlands, including foreign minister, finance minister, and deputy prime minister.
Long-time Netanyahu critic
Kaag was known to have clashed with former prime minister Mark Rutte over his support for Israel.
She was tasked by the UN to coordinate and facilitate humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip in January 2024
Kaag criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as early as 1996, saying that he was not representative of Israelis when he beat Shimon Peres for prime minister by 1% (at the time the role was directly elected).
Kaag is married to Anis al-Qaq, who served as a deputy minister under Yasser Arafat in the 1990s and a Palestinian Authority ambassador to Switzerland. He retired from politics in 2009.
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