Former D66 leader and finance minister Sigrid Kaag will step down this week as the United Nations envoy for the Middle East peace process, saying the post should be reshaped or even abolished.

“If there is no peace process, you have to fill the role differently,” Kaag told de Volkskrant in an interview.

Kaag took on the UN assignment in early 2024 after coordinating humanitarian relief in Gaza. Her mandate officially ends on Tuesday, after which she will return to Europe and begin teaching at Sciences Po in Paris.

She described the peace process as being “on life support” and said she had initially accepted the post out of a sense of duty, after a direct request from then-US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Kaag’s term coincided with intense violence, including Israel’s ongoing offensive in Gaza and more recent hostilities with Iran. Over 900 Palestinians have died in Gaza since mid-June, on top of an estimated 55,000 deaths since October.

“Gaza has become a dystopia,” Kaag said, adding that Palestinians told her during her farewell visit “we are more than food. Look at our rights, our dignity.”

Efforts to rebuild Gaza, which formed part of Kaag’s brief, have barely begun due to continued fighting. Although detailed plans were prepared, she said there is “nothing to build” without political will and a ceasefire.

She described how hopes of revitalising a two-state solution have largely evaporated, and said new initiatives such as a single democratic state for Israelis and Palestinians are gaining support among younger generations.

Asked whether the current role of UN envoy still serves a purpose, Kaag was clear: “The function comes from the Oslo Accords, when there was still a dream of a path towards two states. That is no longer self-evident. At some point you have to ask: does the form still fit the function?”

Kaag said she hopes new opportunities for de-escalation and diplomacy will emerge, but warned that the international legal order is under serious pressure.

“Perhaps we took the achievements of peace and security for granted for too long,” she said. “Populist foreign policy begins with the mantra of ‘our own people first’. That has crept back in.”