In the latest string of evidence pointing to the SG’s alignment with Israel’s and the US’s plan to dismantle UNRWA, one issue has gone almost completely unnoticed: António Guterres has still not initiated a publicly announced recruitment process for a new Commissioner-General of UNRWA.
And the longer this goes on, the more difficult it becomes to call it a delay.
The facts before us are that the departure of former Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini was fully anticipated and his term formally ended on 30 June 2026. This was a fully anticipated senior vacancy, and it certainly did not take the Secretary-General by surprise.
We estimate that Lazzarini informed the Secretary-General as early as December 2025 that he would not remain in the position, but even setting our own information aside, one date is indisputable.
By 31 March 2026, Guterres publicly acknowledged that Lazzarini’s term would end on 30 June. In fact, on that very day, Guterres announced that Christian Saunders would become Officer-in-Charge of UNRWA from 1 April to 30 June and then Acting Commissioner-General from 1 July. So already on 31 March, three full months before Lazzarini’s term expired, the Secretary-General was making arrangements for what would happen after his departure.
Guterres, however, did not announce that Saunders would act until a new Commissioner-General was appointed. He did not announce that recruitment for Lazzarini’s successor had begun. He did not issue a vacancy announcement. He did not announce a timetable for selecting a new Commissioner-General.
Instead, he announced that Saunders would serve as Acting Commissioner-General “until further notice”.
“Until further notice” for one of the most vital agencies in the UN’s architecture. Yet Guterres does not seem to be in any hurry to recruit a Commissioner-General. This lack of action appears intended to keep UNRWA, and with it the millions of Palestinian refugees it serves, in an indefinite state of limbo, pending perhaps the geopolitical plans that the US and Israeli administrations are carving out for the region.
Some people have speculated that a possible explanation might be that António Guterres’s own term ends in December 2026 and that he therefore does not want to bind his successor by making senior appointments so late in his mandate.
Except that the facts show precisely the opposite. The Secretary-General’s own website is incriminating evidence.
The process is clearly designed to begin before an incumbent leaves. The Secretary-General does not need to wait until an office becomes vacant to begin searching for a successor. And in UNRWA’s case, Guterres unquestionably knew by 31 March that the position would become vacant on 30 June.
So where was the vacancy announcement?
Where was the Note Verbale?
Where was the search for candidates?
Where was the process to identify the next Commissioner-General?
And if no such process was initiated, why not?
It gets worse.
Since 5 March 2026, Guterres has announced 16 relevant senior civilian appointments across the UN system, including USGs, ASGs, heads and deputy heads of major UN entities and missions.
Among them was Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, appointed on 15 May as Under-Secretary-General for Safety and Security.
Ahunna Eziakonwa was appointed Special Adviser on Africa at the level of Under-Secretary-General in June and only began her tenure on 1 August 2026.
Edward Chaiban was appointed Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF on 2 July.
Mohamed Yahya was appointed Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs on 26 June.
Catharina Boehme was appointed Deputy Executive Director of UNFPA on the same day.
And there were many others, as shown in the attachment.
So Guterres was clearly not operating under any policy of refraining from senior appointments during the final months of his mandate.
And that is only the appointments already made. Guterres, it seems is still recruiting senior officials today. As of 26 August 2026, the Secretary-General’s own Senior Leadership Vacancies page continues to advertise senior positions, including an Assistant Secretary-General for the Office for Mine Action and Police in the Department of Peace Operations, with an application deadline of 27 August 2026; a Deputy Executive Secretary for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, with a deadline of 4 September 2026; and an Assistant Secretary-General-level Deputy Executive Director for Humanitarian Action and Supply Operations at UNICEF, with applications closing on 7 September 2026.
And only weeks ago, the same page was recruiting an Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services, with applications closing on 28 July 2026, as well as an Assistant Secretary-General for Environmental Policy Coordination at UNEP, whose deadline was 17 July.
In other words, Guterres is not merely completing recruitment exercises that started long ago.
His administration is actively advertising, receiving applications, and running selection processes for USG- and ASG-level positions in July, August, and September 2026, positions whose incumbents will inevitably serve beyond the end of Guterres’s own mandate.
So the argument that a new UNRWA Commissioner-General cannot be recruited because Guterres leaves office in December simply does not stand.
If the SG can recruit a new USG for OIOS in July, an ASG for peace operations in August and an ASG-level Deputy Executive Director for UNICEF with applications closing in September, why can he not recruit a Commissioner-General for UNRWA?
It is no secret that Israel has openly sought the dismantling of UNRWA and that the United States has withdrawn its support. UNRWA premises have been attacked, hundreds of its staff killed, its operations restricted and its very future openly questioned.
In the final months of his tenure, former UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini took unprecedented measures that had a significant negative impact on the Agency’s workforce. The current Acting Commissioner-General, Christian Saunders, appears to be continuing along the same path.
And there is still no indication that the Secretary-General is planning to recruit a new Commissioner-General of UNRWA anytime soon.
So, to whom does UNRWA report in reality?
Is UNRWA truly a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly, with a mandate renewed by Member States? Or has the Secretary-General effectively made himself subordinate to the political agenda of Israel and the United States?
It seems Guterres needs one final reminder:
The Commissioner-General is not an optional position that can simply disappear because the political circumstances surrounding the Agency have become inconvenient, nor because Israel and the United States would prefer it to do so.
Guterres may leave UNRWA’s leadership vacant. He cannot vacate its mandate.
Thanks Nadine for this article. I have myself raised this matter on a couple of occasions with host gov officials for their attention. Guterres is a part of plan to dismantle the Agency and i say this with first hand information. In 2019 Guterres rewarded a journalist who was spreading lies about unrwa and its management before any investigation was concluded. He is now closing an eye on the competition between UN agencies for taking over UNRWA’s role in Gaza. He appointed people with very Senior positions who became members of the Trump declared Gaza Peace Council. I still call upon all host governments to insist on immediate recruitment for this important and critical position to lead UNRWA into safe position .