UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has announced the appointment of Abdullah Abdul Samad Dashti of Kuwait as the new UN Coordinator for the Black Sea Grain Initiative. Dashti succeeds Amir Mahmoud Abdulla of Sudan, who served as the UN Coordinator since August 2022, according to a statement from the UN Chief's office on Wednesday.
Dashti was the military defence attache of Kuwait in Belgium and the Kuwaiti mission's representative to NATO from 2019 to 2020, and retired in 2021 from the Kuwaiti armed forces at the rank of Vice-Admiral, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Black Sea Grain Initiative was launched by Ukraine, Turkey, Russia and the UN in July 2022, to enable the resumption of exports from Ukraine of grain, foodstuff, and fertiliser, including ammonia, through a safe maritime humanitarian corridor.