World Leaders Return to UN Amid Wars in Middle East and Ukraine

Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

World leaders are gathering in New York this week for the United Nations General Assembly, with US President Donald Trump set to address the gathering for a second consecutive year as conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, along with concerns over artificial intelligence, dominate the agenda.

The 81st session’s high-level general debate is scheduled to begin on 22 September, bringing heads of state and government together at UN headquarters.

Nearly 130 heads of state are expected to attend as the post-World War Two international order faces mounting pressure and the UN confronts financial and political challenges. The organisation is also dealing with criticism from the Trump administration, which has reduced US contributions and withdrawn from several UN bodies.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, who last addressed the General Assembly by video in 2021, is not expected to travel to New York. Instead, he is scheduled to meet Trump in Washington on 24 September, prompting renewed discussion over the UN’s role in addressing major international crises.

The UN is also preparing for a leadership transition, with Secretary-General António Guterres due to complete his term at the end of 2026. The process to select his successor remains under way.

The 15-member UN Security Council is also expected to hold high-level discussions on issues including Ukraine, the Middle East and artificial intelligence during the General Assembly week. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is scheduled to brief the Council on AI and international security.

More than a year into Trump's second term, "we would no longer say that the UN is in freefall, but we would say that it's stuck in an open-ended crisis," said Richard Gowan of the International Crisis ⁠Group.

"The UN may not be in emergency care like it was last year, but it seems to be trapped in a trauma center for the foreseeable future," Gowan said.

The US avoided losing its vote at the assembly by paying $725 million in contributions to the regular budget this week, but it still owes the organisation more than a billion dollars and makes ongoing demands for cuts and reforms.

The assembly meets shortly after several artificial intelligence industry leaders called for a coordinated slowdown of the development of the technology, warning that it could soon improve on its own and escape human control.

Guterres has said that AI will be a major topic, adding that countries pushing its frontiers should set up "common guardrails in order to avoid this race to the bottom that could lead one day to a gigantic disaster at the global level."

The secretary-general has long proposed global governance of AI. In 2023, the UN created an advisory body on the technology, with members including tech executives, government officials and academics.

The warning has put Guterres at odds with Trump, who dismissed AI risks as a "hoax," saying there is a "sick conspiracy" against it and that China would benefit from the doubt being cast on its development.

The Middle East will again be a focus of discussions, as the US-Israeli war on Iran continues to drive global inflation and destabilize the region. Recent gains by Houthi militants threaten shipping in ‌the vital ⁠Bab el-Mandeb Strait and could further spike energy prices.

"It's very difficult to have a military solution for that problem, and the experience of fighting in Yemen demonstrated how complicated it is to have successful interventions," said Guterres, adding that the UN's envoy on Yemen was making a "huge effort" to advance talks.

Peace talks remain stalled, however, as Iran and the US continue to exchange strikes and Trump threatens a major escalation of the war.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is scheduled to address the assembly on Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – wanted by the International Criminal Court over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza that Israel denies – is to speak on Thursday.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will for the second year running not be at the gathering in person. The US, ⁠a close Israeli ally, again denied him a visa. On Thursday, the General Assembly voted to allow Abbas to appear via video.

There is likely to be a high-level meeting on the conflict in Sudan on the sidelines, diplomats said, although a diplomatic breakthrough is unlikely.

Also on the agenda is Russia's more than four-year-old war in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will address the General Assembly. Zelenskiy will likely seek to shore up Ukraine's position ahead of what is expected to be another ⁠tough winter, diplomats said.

The Security Council has been unable to take action to end the conflict because permanent member Russia holds a veto.

Trump has at times appeared frustrated that he has been unable to broker an end to the war, a goal he declared a priority when he began his second term in January last year. The US president spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin earlier this month, but it was unclear whether he plans to meet Zelenskiy ⁠in New York.

Guterres highlighted the impact the war was having on civilians but also on food security and energy prices.

"The effective blockade existing in the Black Sea is creating enormous problems that add to the problems generated by the Middle East crisis, and I think it would be very important to find a way to allow Ukrainian exports and Russian exports of food, fertilizers and energy to take place in a safe way through the Black Sea," he said.

Source: Reuters



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