UNITED NATIONS, Sep 01 (APP): United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Thursday announced the appointment of Imran Riza of Pakistan as his Deputy Special Coordinator for Lebanon and also Resident Coordinator for the Arab country.
Riza, a career UN official will serve in the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon (UNSCOL), which assists the country in forging a peaceful, stable and democratic future.
In addition, Riza will also serve as Humanitarian Coordinator.
“He succeeds Najat Rochdi of Morocco, who recently completed her assignment and to whom the secretary-general is grateful for her accomplishments and wishes her continued success in her new appointment as Deputy Special Envoy for Syria,” according to a UN press release.
Riza brings over 35 years of international experience across the United Nations System, mainly in field settings. For the past three years, he was in Syria as the United Nations Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator.
Prior to this, he served in Lebanon as Deputy Head of Mission and Director of the Division of Political Affairs, Civil Affairs and Strategic Communications of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
He previously served as the Regional Representative to the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries for the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UNHCR Representative for Jordan.
With UNHCR, he has also served in Geneva, Sudan, Hong Kong and Vietnam.
Riza has also held positions with the World Food Programme (WFP) in Rome and as Senior Adviser to the Personal Representative of the Secretary-General for Lebanon, as well as with UNSCOL.
Riza holds a master’s degree in Social-Cultural Anthropology from Johns Hopkins University and a bachelor’s degree in History and Political Science from McGill University. Riza speaks English, French and Urdu.
