Árni Þór Sigurðsson (born 30 July 1960) is an Icelandic diplomat and former member of the

Althing The (; ), anglicised as Althingi or Althing, is the Parliamentary sovereignty, supreme Parliament, national parliament of Iceland. It is the oldest surviving parliament in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at ('Thing (assembly), thing ...

. He is temporarily the Chairman of the Special Executive Committee for Grindavik Affairs, that was established to address the challenges faced by the town of Grindavík due to recent seismic activities, including earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. He is on leave from the Foreign Service and has previously served as ambassador of Iceland to Denmark, to Finland, and to the Russian Federation.

Career

Árni Þór received a cand.mag. degree in Economics and Russian from the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...

in 1986 and subsequently pursued graduate studies in Slavic languages at the

Stockholm University Stockholm University (SU) () is a public university, public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, social ...

and the

University of Moscow Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, and six branches. Al ...

. He received a master's degree in international relations from the

University of Iceland The University of Iceland ( ) is a public research university in Reykjavík, Iceland, and the country's oldest and largest institution of higher education. Founded in 1911, it has grown steadily from a small civil servants' school to a modern co ...

in 2015. From the early 1990s until his election to the Althing in 2007, he served in various roles at the Icelandic Teachers' Union, the Icelandic Ports Association, and on the

Reykjavík City Council The Reykjavík City Council ( Icelandic: ''Borgarstjórn Reykjavíkur'') is the local council for Reykjavík, the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is composed of 23 members elected by proportional representation for a 4-year term The Cou ...

. At the Althing, Árni Þór represented Reykjavík Constituency North as a member of the

Left-Green Movement The Left-Green Movement (, ), also known by its short-form name Vinstri græn (VG), is an eco-socialist political party in Iceland. Since the 2024 Icelandic parliamentary election, the party has had no members in the Althing. The party chairper ...

until 2014. He served on a variety of committees and chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee from 2009 to 2013 and the Parliamentary Delegation to

European Free Trade Association The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) is a regional trade organization and free trade area consisting of four List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Europe, European states: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. ...

from 2009 to 2013. He co-chaired the Iceland-EU Joint Parliamentary Committee and was a delegate to the

Nordic Council The Nordic Council is the official body for formal inter-parliamentary Nordic cooperation among the Nordic countries. Formed in 1952, it has 87 representatives from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden as well as from the autonomo ...

from 2010 to 2013 where he chaired the Standing Committee of Culture and Education. He was Deputy Speaker of the Althing twice in 2009-2010 and 2012–2013. He was chair, vice-chair, or acting chair of the Left-Green Movement's parliamentary group from 2009 to 2012. Árni Þór was appointed to the Icelandic foreign service in 2014. From 2015 he was Ambassador for Arctic Affairs, representing Iceland in the

Arctic Council The Arctic Council is a high-level intergovernmental forum that addresses issues faced by the Arctic governments and the indigenous people of the Arctic region. At present, eight countries exercise sovereignty over the lands within the Arctic ...

and from 2018 he was Iceland's Ambassador to Finland, also accredited to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Ukraine. He became Ambassador to Russia in 2020. He has been decorated a Commander of the Grand Cross of the

Order of the Lion of Finland Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

. Shortly after the closure of Iceland's embassy in Moscow in 2023, Árni Þór became Ambassador to Denmark.

Klaustur Affair

During the

Klaustur Affair The Klaustur Affair, also known in Iceland as Klaustur Recordings ''(Klaustursupptökurnar)'' or Klausturgate was a political scandal in Iceland triggered by audio recordings of a group Althing parliamentarians made without their knowledge at the ...

, it was revealed that

Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson (born 9 June 1968) is an Icelandic politician for the Centre Party. He is a member of the Althingi (Iceland's parliament) for the Centre Party for the Northwest of Iceland constituency since 2017. He was the chairman of ...

had appointed Árni Þór as an ambassador in order to draw attention away from

Geir Haarde Geir Hilmar Haarde (; born 8 April 1951) is an Icelandic politician who served as prime minister of Iceland from 15 June 2006 to 1 February 2009, and as president of the Nordic Council in 1995. Geir was chairman of the Icelandic Independence Par ...

, whose simultaneous appointment was a political favour to the Independence Party. Árni Þór responded with a public statement emphasizing that his experience made him a good candidate for the role.

Personal life

Árni Þór was born in Reykjavík. He and his wife Sigurbjörg Þorsteinsdóttir have three children.

References

External links