United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has announced the appointment of Tor Wennesland of Norway as his new Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. He will also serve as the Secretary-General´s Personal Representative to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority. Furthermore, in this capacity, Mr. Wennesland will be the Envoy of the Secretary-General to the Quartet.
Mr. Wennesland succeeds Nickolay Mladenov of Bulgaria.
Career diplomat
Wennesland is a career diplomat who joined the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1983. He is currently Norway’s Special Representative to the Middle East Peace Process. He has extensive experience in the Middle East going back to 1994. Then he was Adviser on the Middle East Desk in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This was during the process that led to the Oslo II Agreement. He has also served as Norway’s Representative to the Palestinian Authority from 2007 to 201. In addition, he was Norwegian Ambassador to Egypt and Libya from 2012 to 2015.
