When US President-elect Donald Trump tweeted that things would be different for Israel at the United Nations after his inauguration Jan. 20, no one expected that it would include vetoing a personnel decision by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, but that is exactly what happened with the appointment of former Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad as Guterres' personal envoy to Libya.
Fayyad had undergone a rigorous selection process at the end of which all parties appeared to be onboard. The secretary-general’s office even sent a draft press release on the appointment for Fayyad to review, Al-Monitor has learned. Then came the shocker: Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, announced Feb. 10 that the United States opposed Fayyad's appointment, calling it “biased and detrimental to our allies in Israel.”