UN chief recommends Iraqi ex-President Barham Salih take over refugee agency, letter says

GENEVA (AP) – U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has recommended former Iraqi President Barham Salih to become the next head of the U.N. refugee agency, the first nomination from the Middle East in half a century, according to a letter from the U.N. chief.

Salih, 65, is set to succeed longtime agency veteran Filippo Grandi as the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Grandi took office on Jan. 1, 2016, and his second five-year term expires on Dec. 31. He succeeded Guterres in the post.

The expected succession comes at the end of a devastating year for many U.N. organizations like the Geneva-based refugee agency. It has cut thousands of jobs and spending in the wake of sharply reduced foreign aid contributions by the United States – traditionally its top donor – and other Western countries.

Salih, a native of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, served as Iraq’s president from 2018 to 2022. He would be the first non-Western head of the Geneva-based refugee agency since Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan of Iran from 1966 to 1977.

A signed letter from Guterres, dated Thursday, about the selection was addressed to Ambassador Atsuyuki Oike, Japan’s top diplomat in Geneva and chair of UNHCR’s executive committee. The letter was widely circulated on social media and a copy was provided to The Associated Press on Friday.

Diplomatic officials in Geneva, speaking on condition of anonymity because the appointment had not been finalized, told the AP that the letter was authentic.

Alessandra Vellucci, chief spokesperson for the U.N. office in Geneva, said that the appointment must go through “a proper process” that includes consultations with the committee, and a final decision will be taken by the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

“The process is ongoing. And once it’s finished, there will be an official announcement made by the United Nations,” she told reporters at a regular U.N. briefing.

Salih’s presidential term came in the immediate aftermath of the Islamic State group’s rampage across Iraq and the battle to take back the territory seized by the extremist group, including the key northern city of Mosul.

At least 2.2 million Iraqis were displaced as they fled the IS offensive. Many, particularly members of the Yazidi minority from the northern Sinjar district, remain in displacement camps today.

U.S. President Donald Trump, during his first term, carried out an unannounced visit to Iraq when Salih was president.

Salih, who is from the city of Sulaimaniyah in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, joined the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party in 1976 and later worked in its foreign relations department in London. He lived abroad and studied at Cardiff University and the University of Liverpool during the rule of Iraq’s longtime autocratic leader, Saddam Hussein.

He returned to Iraq and held various posts in the government after the 2003 invasion that overthrew Saddam, including planning minister and deputy prime minister. From 2009 to 2011, he served as the prime minister of the Kurdish region.

___ Associated Press writer Farnoush Amiri contributed from New York.