Argentina nominates IAEA chief Grossi for UN secretary-general

Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno says head of UN’s nuclear watchdog is globally recognized for ‘extraordinary work’ on international peace and security

Argentina announced Thursday that it was nominating Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, to become the next UN secretary-general.

Grossi, who hails from Argentina and represented Buenos Aires as the country’s ambassador to Austria from 2013 to 2019, has led the UN’s atomic watchdog agency since late 2019.

In a post announcing Grossi’s nomination, Argentinian Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno said the IAEA chief is “internationally recognized for the extraordinary work he has been carrying out” for the nuclear agency, “which demonstrates his great leadership capacity in the face of serious situations that affect international peace and security.”

The current UN secretary-general is Portugal’s Antonio Guterres, whose term ends on December 31, 2026.

While Israeli officials initially saw Guterres as a friend of Israel, the relationship soured over the years, culminating in then-foreign minister Israel Katz saying in 2024 that the UN had become an “antisemitic and anti-Israeli body” under Guterres’s leadership, then later that year declaring him persona non grata after the secretary-general failed to directly condemn Tehran for a massive ballistic missile attack it launched at the country.

The election to choose the next UN chief is expected to be held sometime in 2026.

The process to elect the next United Nations secretary-general formally kicked off on Tuesday as member states were asked to nominate candidates to take over the role from January 1, 2027.

In a joint letter, the 15-member Security Council and the president of the 193-member General Assembly invited nominations, marking the start of the race to replace Guterres as the world body’s chief administrator.

To be selected, a nominee must receive the backing of nine members of the UN Security Council, with no vetoes from the council’s five permanent members. After that, a vote is held in the UN General Assembly, where only a simple majority is required to elect the international body’s next leader.

Some names that are already in the mix include Grossi, former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, and Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan, who is currently leading the UN agency for trade and development (UNCTAD).

Candidates must be presented by a state or group of states, and submit a vision statement and list funding sources.

The tradition of geographical rotation, which would make it Latin America’s turn to lead the organization, is not always followed. The joint letter noted “the importance of regional diversity” without specifying a required area.

Candidates may undergo public interviews, a transparency procedure first used during the 2016 selection that led to Guterres’s first term.

Security Council members will begin the formal selection process by the end of July, and the five permanent members with veto power — the United States, China, Russia, the United Kingdom, and France — hold the candidate’s future in their hands.

Once the Security Council makes its recommendation, the Assembly can elect the secretary-general to a five-year term that begins January 1, 2027, and is renewable once.

Grossi, as head of the IAEA, has pressed Iran for transparency over its nuclear development program and for its cooperation with the UN agency.

Iran, which avowedly seeks Israel’s destruction, denies seeking to attain nuclear weapons, but it has enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities.