The UN's nuclear chief has hit out at the organisation’s “absence” in major global conflicts in his pitch to become the next secretary general.
Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the UN was going through a “crisis of confidence” due to its inability to successfully mediate conflicts, including Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine.
“Interstate war has returned after many years here in Europe but also in Africa and many other places,” he said at a hustings in London on Thursday.
“The UN is absent from the management or resolution of any of the conflicts I have just mentioned. It needn’t be so."
Mr Grossi said a future secretary general would need to step up their role as a mediator.
“It’s not going to happen unless we do something differently," he said. "It is only going to happen when there is a conviction in leaders, in belligerent nations, that the participation of the UN, and in particular the SG, is going to facilitate a better outcome than what they are having."
Mr Grossi is one of five candidates standing for election as the next leader of the UN, succeeding Antonio Guterres.
There is hope that a new leader would take bold positions that could bypass deadlocks at the Security Council and allow the organisation to be a more effective mediator in global conflicts.
The Argentine diplomat has led the IAEA through the two recent US-Iran wars, in which Tehran's nuclear enrichment programme was at the heart of hostilities.
He has made several trips to Tehran in a bid to increase the agency's access to its nuclear sites. He has also mediated between Russia and Ukraine to secure a ceasefire for repairs to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, which has been occupied by Russia since 2022.
"I have seen first-hand and through my own experience that it is possible to play a role, and not only to play a role for the sake of playing a role," Mr Grossi said.
In the days before the June 2025 war, which saw Israel and the US attack Iranian nuclear sites, he had repeatedly said that he could not be sure Iran's nuclear enrichment programme was entirely peaceful.
This led to accusations from Iran that he had given Israel an excuse to attack. Mr Grossi also criticised Iran for refusing to provide "credible answers" for its three undeclared nuclear sites, which it ran until the early 2000s.
This year, he said he believed that almost half of Iran's uranium stockpile, which was held at an underground site in Isfahan, was probably still there.
Embattled organisation
The UN is facing the biggest challenges in its 80-year history, as growing nationalism around the world has led to aid budget cuts and scepticism about multilateralism.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s military campaign in Gaza have undermined belief in the rule of international law, and there is little global consensus on how to slow down global warming.
The repeated deadlocks at the UN Security Council, in which the UK, France, Russia, China and the US hold the power of veto and often disagree on crucial decisions, have led to further calls for reform.
Mr Grossi said he would try to "reduce" the number of special representatives and special offices, believing them to be part of the secretary general's responsibilities.
"In the area of international peace and security, there is a moral and statutory obligation for the secretary General to assume these roles," he said. "This proliferation of figures has become too much and it has to be stopped."
Mr Grossi said the UN's climate conferences had also become "unmanageable" due to their sheer size.
"It has become a yearly manifestation to thousands of organisations and commercial sites. There's a need to focus there," he said.
He said he hoped to bridge the gap between climate agreements and growing energy demands, particularly in developing countries.
"There has to be a more synchronic work in terms of energy and climate diplomacy," Mr Grossi said. "Small, vulnerable countries have an existential stake on issues related to climate, but also other countries have an economic stake on what they need for their development in terms of energy."
UN's first woman leader?
But Mr Grossi's biggest challenge is the calls for the UN to elect its first woman secretary general – with three women, also from Latin America, running for the position.
Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has also placed an emphasis on mediation in her campaign, pledging to "personally go to the field" when a conflict is brewing.
A socialist whose father was part of Salvador Allende’s government, she was detained by Augusto Pinochet’s forces as a child and fled the country with her mother. Her father died as a result of torture while in detention.
Her return and entry into politics were marked by Chile’s transition to democracy after Pinochet’s military rule, and she was elected twice to the presidency, in 2006 and in 2014. She then led UN agencies for women and human rights.
Ms Bachelet hopes to put human rights at the heart of the UN’s global role, while addressing key issues in the organisation’s operations.
Although she acknowledged the UN needed to slim down its budget, she said more money should be directed towards key issues such as human rights and on-the-ground operations.
“The UN’s legitimacy depends on its ability to deliver concrete results. Because if people do not see the UN working, they will not believe in multilateralism,” Ms Bachelet said.
She drew on her childhood experience as a main motivation for her candidacy. “I know what happens when institutions fail, when people who take power don’t respect the rule of law,” she said.
Ms Bachelet also recalled the a strong sense of solidarity she saw while in exile, which strengthened her belief in multilateralism.
Ecuadorian diplomat Maria Fernanda Espinosa led the UN General Assembly in 2018 and served as foreign minister in the government of populist left-wing leader Rafael Correa, and again 10 years later. She began her career working with indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
The third female candidate, Rebeca Grynspan, is a socialist economist and former vice president of Costa Rica. She now leads UN Trade and Development, where she advocates for the needs of the world’s most vulnerable economies.
The fifth contender is Macky Sall, the former president of Senegal.
