BEIRUT: Lebanon has put its weight behind Spain’s former Foreign Affairs Minister to succeed Michael Williams as United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon after his time in the post ends on Sept. 30.

A United Nations commission, set up by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who is directly responsible for appointing the post, interviewed three European candidates for the job last week, Al-Hayat newspaper said in its Tuesday edition.

The candidates to succeed Williams are the former Spanish minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, Norwegian ambassador to Lebanon Aud Lise Norheim and Switzerland's Special Envoy for the Middle East Jean Daniel Ruch.

Sources told the pan-Arab newspaper that the Lebanese government favors the nomination of Moratinos.

“President Michel Sleiman and Prime Minister Najib Mikati showed, in separate meetings with Ban in New York, their enthusiasm toward Moratinos," the newspaper quoted a European diplomatic source as saying.

Lebanon’s support for Moratinos is shared by Syria and other Lebanese officials who have close ties with Damascus, the source added in an article published Monday.

Reasons behind Lebanon's support for Moratinos, the Al-Hayat sources say, lie in his previous high ranking positions as the head of the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Spain and his current post as the European Union Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process.

The post of U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon was set up by Ban in the aftermath of the 2006 war between Lebanon and Israel to represent the secretary general on all political and coordination aspects in the country, an extension of an earlier post intended to help coordinate U.N. activities regarding south Lebanon and support international efforts to maintain peace and security between Israel and Lebanon

The U.N. coordinator also maintains regular contact with Lebanon's neighbors and other countries in order to promote the full implementation of Resolution 1701 and other initiatives related to Lebanon.

Moratinos, Norheim, and Ruch have all held high ranking positions and have worked in international relations.

Moratinos, 60, was foreign affairs minister from 2004 to 2010.

Between 1996 and 2003, he was the European Union Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process and was nominated as a candidate for the position of director general of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. He came to Lebanon earlier this year to rally the country’s support for the post, but eventually lost out to Brazilian Jose Graziano.

Between 1991-1993, he held a post as the director general of the Institute for Cooperation with the Arab World and in 1996 was ambassador of Spain in Israel.

Norheim, 55, is currently the Norwegian ambassador to Lebanon. Between 1995 and 1996; she was adviser to and secretariat of the minister of development assistance of the Foreign Ministry in Oslo.

Between 1998 and 1999, she was deputy director general and secretariat of the minister of development cooperation and human rights at the Foreign Ministry.

In 2007 she was appointed as chargeé d’ affaires at the  Royal Norwegian Embassy. 

Ruch is currently the special representative for the Middle East at Switzerland’s Foreign Ministry.

Between 2003- 2007, he was the political adviser to the Prosecutor at U.N. Yugoslavia War Crimes Tribunal. He spent three years as deputy head of the Swiss Embassy in Belgrade from 2000.