Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert is the new Special Coordinator for Lebanon. (Credit: AFP)
BEIRUT — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced in a press release on Monday the appointment of Dutch Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert as the new Special Coordinator for Lebanon. She succeeds Joanna Wronecka of Poland, who replaced Slovak Jan Kubis on April 1, 2021.
Guterres praised Wronecka's “commitment and leadership” as head of the UN Special Coordination Office for Lebanon.
Hennis-Plasschaert is currently the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Iraq and head of the UN Assistance Mission there since 2018. She was the first woman to hold the position of Minister of Defense of the Netherlands under Prime Minister Mark Rutte from 2012 to 2017.
She is fluent in German, English, French and Dutch.
Wronecka's journey
Wronecka was nominated at a time when Lebanon had no government following the resignation of former Prime Minister Hassan Diab's cabinet in the aftermath of the 2020 Beirut Port Explosion.
Thus, Wronecka's first demand as a new Special Coordinator, was the election of a new government that could put the country on the path to recovery.
She also talked about the Lebanese financial and economic crisis many times, stressing the need to act swiftly to stabilize the situation and institute reforms.
Lebanon has been submerged in an economic crisis since 2019, which the World Bank ranked among the world's top three in terms of severity since the 19th century. The crisis left over three-quarters of the population in poverty.
Wronecka also discussed with Lebanese officials the maritime border negotiations between Lebanon and Israel, which were finalized in Oct. 2022, and the implementation of UNSC Resolution 1701.
UN Security Council Resolution 1701, passed after the July 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, calls for a "permanent ceasefire" and the deployment of Lebanese Army soldiers and UNIFIL soldiers on the Blue Line.
Moreover, since the beginning of the presidential vacuum in Lebanon after the end of former president Michel Aoun's term in Oct. 2022, Wronecka had been repeatedly calling for the election of a new president. She also had discussions with Hezbollah, among others, regarding the presidential stalemate.
Finally, since the start of the skirmishes between Hezbollah and Israel along the Lebanese-Israeli border on Oct. 8, the UN Special Coordinator had been emphasizing the need to de-escalate the situation and the full implementation of 1701.
Anti-Hezbollah figures criticized Wronecka in 2023
In Jan. 2023, Wronecka was criticized by anti-Hezbollah figures following a meeting between her and Hezbollah official Ammar Moussawi.
After the meeting, Wronecka posted on X: "I thank Mr. Ammar Moussawi of Hezbollah for a tour d’horizon on issues of priority for Lebanon, including the election of a new President, the functioning of state institutions and the impact of regional and international developments on the country."
I thank Mr. Ammar Moussawi of Hizbullah for a tour d’horizon on issues of priority for #Lebanon, including the election of a new President, the functioning of state institutions and the impact of regional and international developments on the country.
— Joanna Wronecka (@JWronecka) January 16, 2023
One month before that meeting, Irish UNIFIL peacekeeper Private Sean Rooney was killed and three other Irish soldiers were injured when their vehicle was attacked near the village of Aaqibiya in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah has a strong presence.
Following Wronecka's tweet, former Lebanese Forces MP Fares Souhaid said that Wronecka's "praise of ... Moussaoui is a bad sign."
"We demand clarification," he said.
Meanwhile, former Future TV journalist Nadim Koteich described the tweet on X, saying: "This is a tweet by the UN Special Coordinator in Lebanon about a Hezbollah militia official a few days after a member of the [UNIFIL] was killed by a member of the militia ... UN patronage and gratitude to a terrorist militia."
Some Israeli officials also criticized the tweet.
"Is this real..??" said the head of strategic affairs in Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Joshua Zarka, according to Fox News.
"An official Senior UN Representative thanks the terrorist organization responsible for the murder of a UN peace keeper for ‘a tour d’horizon,'" he exclaimed.
Meanwhile, the head of public diplomacy at Israel’s embassy in Berlin, Yaki Lopez, asked: "So how does it feel to be indoctrinated by a terrorist? Care to share with us?"