While U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace has gained the approval of the United Nations Security Council, Israeli officials have often said that when it comes to the Middle East peace process, the United Nations offers little in the way of peace or a process to get there.

But former U.N. envoy Nickolay Mladenov is, by all accounts, an exception to the rule. The former Bulgarian politician and diplomat was selected as Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza, overseeing a transitional government, security apparatus and reconstruction in the Strip.

“Nickolay is very experienced. He knows the players on the ground,” Danny Danon, Israel’s U.N. ambassador, told JNS.

Danon served his first term as U.N. envoy during a time when Mladenov was positioned as the U.N. special envoy for the Middle East peace process, from 2015-2020, a time which saw relative quiet on the Israel-Gaza front.  

“He was very effective in his role, and he knew how to communicate with all sides, both with us, but also with other parties,” said Danon, in rare praise of a U.N. official. 

The Palestinian Authority also had an affinity for Mladenov, presenting him in 2021 with the Grand Star of the Order of Jerusalem, a service award given by P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas to diplomats, officials and other figures of note.

“No matter how you’re approaching this, from whatever political vantage point, his involvement, I might be overstating it a little bit to call it a bright spot—I don’t know if there’s a bright spot—but  it is a positive thing,” a source intimately familiar with Mladenov’s work told JNS. 

“You think about how many people in any capacity have been tasked with dealing with the Israeli-Arab conflict, especially from the U.N. perspective. The fact that you have someone left with a reputation intact, with relationships intact, with good feelings on all sides, I think, speaks to a specific character,” the source said. He noted that “the first guy that was sent got killed,” referencing Folke Bernadotte, an early U.N. mediator assassinated by the Lehi paramilitary group.

Mladenov, a 53-year-old father of three, holds master’s degrees in war studies from King’s College London and international relations from the University of National and World Economy in Sofia.

He served as a member of the European Parliament and as Bulgaria’s defense minister and foreign minister. He previously founded the European Institute in Sofia and was its director until 2001 before his election to the National Assembly, running on a center-right platform.

Ban Ki-moon, then the U.N. secretary-general, tapped Mladenov as the special representative for the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq.

He would go on to serve as the special envoy for the Middle East, and most recently was based in the United Arab Emirates, where he has been running the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy. 

Ahead of a fundraising-focused Thursday meeting of the Board of Peace in Washington, Mladenov spoke at the Munich Security Conference last Friday, marking rare public comments from him since taking on his newest role.

He discussed the challenges ahead for the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, known as the NCAG, a panel of Palestinian technocrats who are supposed to be unaffiliated with both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, 

Among those are taking over the levers of Gazan institutional power from Hamas, and that NCAG be given the appropriate resources to enforce the existing ceasefire and bring about the reconstruction process, along with finalizing and enforcing a plan to decommission Hamas’s weapons.

“The task is a very major one, but I think he has the skills to push it forward,” Danon said of Mladenov.

Mladenov’s posture in Munich, including his refraining from blaming any one party for shortcomings in the Gaza peace process, is a reflection of what Danon says is Mladenov’s matter-of-fact approach, unlike the one-sided advocacy campaigns launched by other U.N. officials.

“It’s the fact that he sticks to the professional matters. During his term as U.N. envoy, he kept away from propaganda,” said Danon. “When there was an issue with Israel, he criticized us, but it wasn’t a campaign. He sticks to the facts, and that’s something that all parties appreciated.”

That doesn’t necessarily mean Mladenov will see success in his new endeavor, the source told JNS. 

“Will we have a solution to the future of Gaza around the corner? Absolutely not,” the source said. “I think there’s a lot of hard work ahead. Mladenov is an incredibly capable mediator and operator. But there are a lot of things that are beyond his control that will ultimately influence the outcome.”

One of those things will be dealing not only with the mercurial Trump, but the wide range of interests brought to the table by participating Board of Peace members, in addition to the general volatility of the situation in Gaza.

Trump reportedly wanted to select Tony Blair, the former British prime minister and Middle East peace envoy for the “Quartet” of the United States, United Nations, European Union and  Russia.

The selection would have fit Trump’s affinity for splashy hires, particularly those from the business world. But some Arab countries reportedly made clear their disdain for Blair’s history in the Middle East, particularly the U.K.’s involvement in the Iraq War.

Mladenov, meanwhile, is largely unknown outside of diplomatic circles, but his U.N. tenure in Jerusalem coincided with part of Trump’s first term in the White House. 

“I think that, in some ways, speaks to his strengths,” the source said of Mladenov’s selection by Trump despite his low profile. “He’s not a businessman, he’s not a developer, and so he’s coming at it from a different perspective. There are tough characters involved here— everything from the Netanyahu government to Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, as well as the Trump administration—and the fact that he’s been tapped and given a chance to perform speaks to his character more than anything else.”

Danon told JNS that Israel was not asked to approve Mladenov’s selection. Ultimately, though, it’s more about having someone in the seat who can get things done, rather than please everyone on every issue, he said.

“Our partners in Washington wanted someone that will be able to walk with all sides, and that’s why they picked him,” said Danon. “When we speak about disarmament of Hamas, which for us is the most important part in the near future, you need someone who actually will look at the challenges and the tasks and will make sure that it’s moving forward. He has the experience on the ground.”

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