Wednesday Briefing: The U.N. General Assembly Convenes

Briefing|Wednesday Briefing: The U.N. General Assembly Convenes

World leaders face global turmoil at the U.N.

World leaders gathered in New York to hear President Biden and other speakers address the 79th meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. Calls to end the Middle East conflict and wars in Ukraine and Sudan were expected to dominate the weeklong conference, all goals that still look out of reach.

António Guterres, the secretary general, said in his opening remarks that “a powder keg risks engulfing the world.” Biden, who was addressing the General Assembly for the last time, warned that the world was facing an “inflection point.”

“Our task, our test, is to make sure that the forces holding us together are stronger than those that are pulling us apart,” Biden said. “For the choices we make today will determine our future for decades to come.”

Middle East: The newly elected president of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian, told the assembly that he aimed to usher his country into “a new era” of domestic reform and constructive engagement with the world. He slammed Israel for what he called “crimes against humanity” and presented Iran’s support of a network of proxy militia groups as support for freedom fighters.

Many speakers criticized Israel over the war in the Gaza Strip — which has killed more than 41,000 people, according to the local health authorities — as well as a steeply escalating conflict with the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was expected to arrive today and speak tomorrow.

Ukraine: The Security Council convened a last-minute session on Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to the 15 members to continue supporting his country’s defense. “Russia can only be forced into peace,” Zelensky said.