Former Iraqi president and senior Kurdish statesman Barham Salih has been selected as the next head of the UN refugee agency, according to reports.
Mr Salih's selection as the High Commissioner for Refugees is yet to be confirmed as it needs to be approved by the UNHCR Executive Committee before a decision by the General Assembly in New York, a UN official told The National.
“Once this process is complete, the United Nations will make an official announcement,” the official said.
The General Assembly session should be held by next week, said the official.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres selected Mr Salih in a letter dated December 11, with his five-year term due to begin on January 1.
If confirmed, Mr Salih will assume one of the UN system’s most senior and influential posts overseeing global refugee protection and humanitarian operations.
He would replace Filippo Grandi, an Italian and a veteran UN official who has held the position since 2016. The number of displaced people is twice what it was when Mr Grandi assumed office.
Mr Salih will become the first Iraqi to assume the post, which has been held by European officials for years. He was chosen over a dozen candidates, including nationals from key donor countries such as Germany, Switzerland and Sweden.
Funding for the agency has fallen short this year as key donors, such as the US, have cut back and other western donors have shifted funds to defence.
It has been reported that Mr Guterres, who once ran the refugee agency himself, chose Mr Salih from a shortlist of three or four candidates.
Mr Guterres will arrive in Baghdad on Saturday for a visit marking the end of the 22-year mandate of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (Unami). He is expected to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani in Baghdad, as well as UN staff.
Who is Barham Salih?
Mr Salih, born in 1960 to a well known family in Iraq's northern Kurdish city of Sulaymaniyah, is a British-educated engineer and a veteran of the Iraqi political scene.
Mr Salih became the ninth president of Iraq in October 2018, when the parliament elected him with an overwhelming majority. He took office as Iraq was dealing with the aftermath of the war on ISIS, posing challenges that he discussed in an interview with The National.
He has held several high-ranking positions in Baghdad's central government. He served as the deputy prime minister for economic affairs and the head of the parliamentary economic committee from 2005 to 2009.
Mr Salih was also the planning minister in the Iraqi transitional government and in 2004 held the role of deputy prime minister in Iraq’s interim government, before the country's first official elections in 2005, after the end of the Baath regime.
He was also the prime minister of the Kurdish Regional Government in Sulaymaniyah for three years from 2001.
