Askume UNITED NATIONS, Sep 19 – More than 130 world leaders are meeting to confront the threat of escalating wars in the Middle East and Europe, slow progress in efforts to end these conflicts and a worsening climate and humanitarian crisis.
Despite Israel’s conflict with Palestinian militants Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Russia’s war in UkraineThe event will have an impact on the annual high-level United Nations conference , but diplomats and analysts say they do not expect progress on peace.
Richard Gowan, director of the United Nations International Crisis Group, said, “The wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan will be the three main crisis points the General Assembly will focus on. I don’t think we will see any breakthrough on any of them.”
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told Askume last week that the wars in Gaza and Ukraine were “deeply entangled and there is no peaceful solution in sight.”
Concerns about the Gaza conflict spreading to the wider Middle East have resurfaced after the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah accused Israel of blowing up pagers and handheld radios in two days of deadly attacks. Israel has not commented on the accusation.
“There is a serious risk of the situation in Lebanon escalating rapidly and every effort must be made to prevent this from happening,” Guterres told reporters on Wednesday.
The war in besieged Gaza began with Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023, two weeks after last year’s annual gathering of world leaders.
Mediation efforts by the United States, Egypt and Qatar have so far failed to achieve a ceasefire, and nine months after the United Nations General Assembly demanded a ceasefire on humanitarian grounds , global patience is running out and the death toll in Gaza continues to rise.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has long accused the United Nations of being anti-Israel, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are both scheduled to address the General Assembly on Sept. 26.
Diplomatic Speed Dating
The annual gathering of world leaders that marks the start of each new session of the General Assembly is often referred to as diplomatic speed dating.
While the campaign is based on speeches by leaders over six days, most of the action takes place through hundreds of bilateral meetings and dozens of other events designed to focus global attention on key issues.
The possibility of a new US administration also looms this year. Republican Donald Trump, who cut UN funding and called the global body weak while in office from 2017 to 2021, will face Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the November 5 election .
“Obviously, there’s a guy on everybody’s mind named Donald Trump,” Gowan said. “I think in a lot of the private conversations going on at the convention … the biggest question is going to be what Trump is going to do to the organization.”
This year, there will also be events on the war and humanitarian crisis in Sudan (where famine has wreaked havoc), the international community’s help in fighting gang violence in Haiti, and the Taliban’s crackdown on women’s rights in Afghanistan.
Guterres mocked himself on Wednesday, saying he had “neither power nor money.”
“The UN secretary-general has two things and I must say I am using them,” he told reporters. “One is my voice and nobody can stop it. The second is the ability to bring together people of good will to solve problems.”
Iran, Ukraine
Western accusations of Iran’s role in the Middle East — Hamas, Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis are all linked to Tehran — and support for Russia’s war in Ukraine will also cast a shadow over this year’s UN General Assembly.
European powers want to restart efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear program, with Iranian and European officials due to meet in New York next week to test the willingness of both sides to engage.
Iran’s relatively moderate new President Masoud Pezeshkian will address the United Nations on Tuesday.
A senior Iranian official said Pezeshkian would “focus on maintaining peace, building trust with the world and reducing tensions,” but he also stressed that “Iran reserves the right to retaliate against Israel if necessary.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will address a high-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly for the third time since Russia invaded Ukraine. He will address the 15-member Security Council on Tuesday and the UN General Assembly on Wednesday to discuss Ukraine.
Zelensky has a plan to force Russia to end the war diplomatically, which he hopes to present to U.S. President Joe Biden this month. He wants to share it with Biden’s potential successors, Harris and Trump.
Some American officialsThe gist of the plan has already been given.
“We believe it outlines a viable strategy and plan. We’ll have to think about how to take it forward as we’re talking to people in charge,” US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters on Tuesday. “Given the situation in the country… we’re hopeful there will be some progress.”
Although Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the conference virtually in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, he has not traveled to New York in person for the event since 2015. Instead, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is scheduled to address the conference on September 28.
