UNITED NATIONS (news agencies) — World leaders will open their annual meeting at the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday under the shadow of increasing global divisions, major wars in Gaza, Ukraine and, Sudan and the threat of an even larger conflict in the wider Middle East.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres previewed his opening “State of the World” speech to presidents, prime ministers, monarchs and ministers at Sunday’s “Summit of the Future,” saying “our world is heading off the rails — and we need tough decisions to get back on track.”
He pointed to conflicts “raging and multiplying, from the Middle East to Ukraine and Sudan, with no end in sight” and to the global security system, which he said is “threatened by geopolitical divides, nuclear posturing, and the development of new weapons and theaters of war.”
He also cited huge inequalities, the lack of an effective global system to respond to emerging and even existential threats, and the devastating impact of climate change.
One notable moment at Tuesday’s opening assembly meeting: U.S. President Joe Biden’s likely final major appearance on the world stage, a platform he has tred upon for decades.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters last week that the U.S. focus in the assembly will be on ending “the scourge of war,” lamenting that roughly 2 billion people live in conflict-affected areas.
But she also said: “The most vulnerable around the world are counting on us to make progress, to make change, to bring about a sense of hope for them.”
Among other speakers on opening day are Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, King Abdullah II of Jordan, and Iran’s new President Masoud Pezeshkian.
The Iranian leader accused Israel on Monday of seeking a wider war in the Middle East and laying “traps” to lead his country into a broader conflict. He pointed to the deadly explosions of pagers, walkie-talkies and other electronic devices in Lebanon last week, which he blamed on Israel, and the assassination of Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31, hours after Pezeshkian’s inauguration.
“We don’t want to fight,” the Iranian president said. “It’s Israel that wants to drag everyone into war and destabilize the region. … They are dragging us to a point where we do not wish to go.” Iran supports both Hamas in Gaza and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants.
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