Never has the cliché that we are at a pivotal moment in Middle East diplomacy been more accurate. Yet at this critical juncture, the post of UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) has remained vacant for months. It is time to appoint a new envoy and restore the UN’s political role in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

Based in Jerusalem, with sub-offices in Gaza and Ramallah, UNSCO is mandated to coordinate the United Nations’ overall engagement in the Middle East peace process and to support efforts toward a negotiated, just, and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The mission also works to align the UN’s political, humanitarian, and development activities across the Occupied Palestinian Territory. In addition, the special coordinator is the secretary-general’s personal representative to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority.

While the position of special coordinator was established in 1994, it draws on a long UN tradition of diplomatic engagement in the Arab–Israeli conflict and carries significant symbolic weight. From Count Folke Bernadotte, the UN’s first envoy who mediated the initial ceasefire of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and was assassinated in Jerusalem by the Stern Gang, to Ralph Bunche, who negotiated the 1949 Armistice Agreements, to General Ensio Siilasvuo, who facilitated the Kilometer 101 Agreement between Israel and Egypt in 1973, successive UN envoys have fulfilled important good offices roles ever since.

The most recent special coordinator, Sigrid Kaag, served for a year as senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza in the early stages of the war before replacing Tor Wennesland as special coordinator in the end of 2024. However, she agreed to serve only as acting special coordinator for the first six months of 2025. Since June, the UN has been without a full-time representative at a historic moment in one of the most politically sensitive and strategically important regions.

In the meantime, Deputy Special Coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov, who also serves as the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator, has acted as the officer-in-charge for UNSCO. He has capably led the scaling up of humanitarian operations since the fragile October 2025 ceasefire in Gaza took effect, while facing access restrictions, insecurity and operational constraints. Yet combining the UN’s humanitarian and development responsibilities with a demanding political portfolio is not sustainable. The two roles are complementary and mutually reinforcing by design, and each requires full-time leadership.

As the region approaches what may be the beginning of the end of the Gaza war, UNSCO will have an opportunity to play a critical role. It will not replace the mediation led by Egypt, Qatar, and the United States, but it can meaningfully support and complement their efforts. While these mediators pursue national interests and have political stakes in the conflict, the special coordinator can support the negotiations as an impartial representative dedicated to promoting the UN’s principles.

The special coordinator’s task will be to bridge the negotiation and implementation of agreements on relief, reconstruction, and political and military arrangements. Given the UN’s extensive operational presence in Gaza, the envoy can leverage this footprint to sustain international support for interim governance systems anchored in the principles of transparency, accountability, and international law. The constraints  facing UNRWA make these responsibilities ever more important.

Should the US peace plan be implemented, the UN would be expected to be a member of the “Board of Peace” proposed to oversee a new international transitional authority for Gaza. The special coordinator would be best placed to represent the UN in this body, to ensure coherence between political and operational efforts. UNSCO would also have a key role in ensuring coordination with the envisioned International Stabilization Force. The work of the special coordinator will be crucial to ensuring these structures operate legitimately, in line with international law, and within the framework of a long-term political solution to the conflict.

Reestablishing a political role for the UN will depend largely on the personality and political skill of the next envoy to create and seize opportunities. Despite relations between Israel and the UN being at their lowest point in years, both Ramiz Alakbarov and Tom Fletcher, the UN emergency relief coordinator and head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), who visited Gaza and Tel Aviv in mid-October, have shown that it is possible to restore dialogue, and their efforts have been essential to increasing aid. Indeed, the UN’s humanitarian role has recently been acknowledged in public by American negotiators, who are often skeptical of the organization. Carving out political space for the UN is also doable and equally important in the long term.

Patience and relationship-building will also be key. Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon understood this well. During his two terms, he visited Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory numerous times. Together with his doggedly persistent envoys, he cultivated contacts across deep political divides, creating space for UN engagement. At the same time, expectations should be realistic. The current political environment makes UN-negotiated breakthroughs like that brokered by Ralph Bunche unrealistic, but the organization can still make a meaningful difference.

Potential disagreements in the Security Council should not be grounds for inaction. The council’s past decisions already provide a solid legal and political foundation for the special coordinator’s work. Further, it is likely that in the current atmosphere, member states—including the council’s five permanent members—would welcome renewed UN engagement. Notably, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has recently said the US might pursue a new Security Council resolution authorizing the deployment of a multinational force in Gaza. Hopefully, if such a resolution is adopted, it would also reaffirm UNSCO’s role and its coherent and nimble structure.

As the UN marks its eightieth anniversary, amid populist doubts about multilateralism and significant reforms, filling UNSCO with a capable leader would send a clear message that the organization intends to be relevant and impactful. The UN will be judged less by how efficiently it reorganizes its bureaucracy in headquarters and more by how effectively it delivers on the ground. Even if the task is difficult and often frustrating, it reflects the very purpose for which the organization was created.