NEW YORK, USA—Former Portuguese prime minister and “close friend” of Jalal Talabani, Antonio Guterres has been tipped for the position of the world’s top diplomat, receiving near unanimous support from the UN Security Council in preliminary secret ballots.

"Today, after our sixth straw poll, we have a clear favourite and his name is Antonio Guterres," Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s ambassador to the UN told reporters on Wednesday.

The majority of the council supported Guterres' nomination, including all five permanent members.



"We have decided to go to a formal vote tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock, and we hope it can be done by acclamation," Churkin added. He spoke on behalf of the council as president of the body for the month of October.



Iraq’s ambassador to the UN, Mohamed Ali Alhakim, described Guterres as a “close friend” of former Iraqi President and founder of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Jalal Talabani.



Guterres visited Iraq frequently when he was head of the UN’s refugee body, the UNHCR, from 2005 to 2015. His tenure largely coincided with Talabani’s presidency, from 2005 to 2014.



The UN Security Council will hold a formal vote on Thursday and then the matter goes to the General Assembly for final approval, which is expected to go smoothly given consensus from the five permanent members of the Security Council.



Ban Ki-moon’s term as Secretary General will come to an end in January 2017.





