On Tuesday, the UN Security Council gave UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres the green light to appoint Bulgarian diplomat, Nickolay Mladenov, as his new special envoy to Libya.
Mladenov will succeed Ghassan Salame, ten months after he stepped down from his position for health reasons.
A brief biography of Mladenov:
1- Mladenov was born on 5 May 1972.
2- He graduated from Bulgaria’s University of National and World Economy (UNWE) in 1995, majoring in international relations.
3- In 1996, he received his master’s degree in war studies from King’s College, London.
4- He was a member of the European Parliament from 2007 to 2009.
5- He was appointed as Bulgarian Minister of Defence from 27 July 2009 to 27 January 2010.
6- He also served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov from 2010 to 2013.
7- On 2 August 2013, Mladenov was appointed as the UN envoy to Iraq.
8- He was also appointed as the UN special envoy to the Middle East in 2015.
During his time as the Middle East envoy, he faced many challenges, including periods of heightened tension between Gaza and Israel, the acceleration of Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories, internal divisions among Palestinians, and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Mladenov held many discussions with Egypt to avoid a military escalation between Israel and Hamas, who controls the Gaza strip.
He will be succeeded by the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland. Wennesland is a Norwegian diplomat specializing in Middle East issues, who has held several positions in Tel Aviv, Ramallah, and Cairo.