dubai government summit

On monday U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he believed former Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad was the right person to be the world body’s envoy to Libya after the United States raised objections to the choice. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has expressed disappointment over Guterres’s choice, saying the United Nations had for too long been “unfairly biased in favour of the Palestinian Authority to the detriment of our allies in Israel”. “It is a loss for the Libyan peace process and for the Libyan people that I am not able to appoint him” Guterres said at the World Government Summit in Dubai. “I do not think there is any valid reason to avoid someone who is very competent to do a job that is extremely important” he said, adding that ending the Libyan conflict was in “everybody’s interest.” It is unclear whether the U.S. objection has ended Fayyad’s candidacy. Guterres declined to answer questions when approached by Reuters immediately after his comments. Guterres dismissed the accusation that the United Nations is biased on Israeli-Palestinian issues and said the body’s only loyalty was to its charter.