分类： world

On the second day of the 2025 United Nations General Assembly, Arab and Muslim leaders united to center global attention on two defining regional crises: the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war against Iran and the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza. The day’s debates were shaped by sharp, direct pushback against threats and military actions from Washington and Tel Aviv, with leaders laying out their nations’ stances amid shifting regional alliances and escalating conflict. The proceedings opened with a direct response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s combative address delivered a day earlier, where Trump threatened to “annihilate Iran” in the same speech where he floated the possibility of negotiating a end to the war. After Trump labeled the Iranian people “terrorists” during his remarks, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian confirmed he revised his planned address to directly address the accusations. Opening his speech by holding images of Iran’s assassinated Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed in the opening U.S.-Israeli strikes on February 28, and graphic photos of Iranian children killed in American airstrikes and their mass graves, Pezeshkian delivered a scathing rebuke of Washington and Tel Aviv. Pezeshkian pushed back forcefully against the terrorist labeling, noting, “Those who are terrorists, and train and protect terrorists, describe us as such. We have only defended ourselves. We are not terrorists. America and Israel attacked us.” He added that over the last two centuries, Iran has never launched an offensive attack on any other sovereign nation, calling the terrorist designation a baseless smear. The Iranian president also addressed U.S. justifications for the war, reaffirming that Tehran has never pursued a nuclear weapon, but will not surrender its right to develop peaceful civilian nuclear technology. “Iran does not accept for nuclear technology to be at the exclusive disposal of some,” he stated. “We will not bow our head and give up the right that is inherently ours. We say it clearly: no nuclear weapons and no limitations to peaceful nuclear technology.” He also called out U.S.-Israeli hypocrisy for pressuring Iran to curb its nuclear program while turning a blind eye to Israel’s widely acknowledged, undeclared nuclear arsenal. On ballistic missile programs, Pezeshkian defended Iran’s right to maintain a robust defensive military capability to deter aggression, noting, “Iran must be powerful, so as to avoid being threatened. We do not wish to use our power for hegemony. Our defensive systems have been built so that no one can think that the bombing of Iranian cities can go unanswered.” He also pushed back on claims that the Islamic Republic lacks popular support, confirming that widespread domestic protests at the start of 2025 were incited and armed by the U.S. and Israel, while massive crowds across Iran have turned out in widespread pro-government and pro-national demonstrations. The United Nations fact-finding mission has already confirmed that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe U.S. strikes on civilian targets in Iran — including a Minab elementary school that killed at least 150 people, 120 of them children, and a sports complex in Lamerd hit with thousands of tungsten pellets — amount to war crimes. Parallel to the Iran debate, U.S. envoys met with Iranian officials for three hours of closed-door talks on a potential ceasefire deal this week. Iran hardened its position ahead of the talks, reiterating that its core precondition for any agreement is the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global chokepoint for energy trade. Tuesday also saw Trump hold a separate meeting with a group of Arab and Muslim leaders, where he offered warm praise for the assembled officials, but the gathering concluded with no tangible agreements or public announcements addressing Middle East regional turmoil. Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, speaking to the General Assembly in one of his highest-profile UN appearances since ousting former President Bashar al-Assad in late 2024, used his address to declare Syria’s formal return to the international community while delivering a fierce condemnation of ongoing Israeli aggression against his country. Sharaa noted that since he took power, Israel has launched more than 500 air strikes, carried out over 1,200 ground incursions, and detained more than 300 Syrians inside sovereign Syrian territory, actions he said directly contradict the global welcome of Syria’s reintegration into global affairs. “The world is joyed by our return but Israel is launching attacks against Syria,” he said. “This is at odds with the orientation we are seeing at a global level. We reject their aggressions.” Sharaa also reaffirmed Syria’s sovereign claim to the Golan Heights, the strategic territory seized by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and illegally annexed by Tel Aviv in 1981, a move that Donald Trump unilaterally recognized during his first presidential term in 2019. “Any attempts that violate our sovereignty, that violate international law, will be stopped. Golan will remain Syrian territories,” he said, calling for a full return to the 1974 disengagement agreement that established a UN-patrolled buffer zone between the two nations — a zone Israel currently occupies after invading southern Syria following Sharaa’s ascent to power. The Syrian leader made clear that he will not pursue formal diplomatic relations with Israel as long as Israeli strikes continue and the Golan Heights remains occupied, noting that his own birthplace falls within the illegally held territory. Sharaa also outlined progress his administration has made since taking power, noting that broad security has been restored across the country, transnational criminal networks and the captagon drug trade — which flourished under the Assad government — have been cracked down, and the government is cooperating with international bodies to eliminate leftover chemical weapons stockpiles from the Assad era. While international sanctions on Syria have been lifted, Sharaa acknowledged his government still faces steep challenges, including a collapsed economy and slow progress on post-conflict reconstruction. Still, he closed with an optimistic note: “Syria is rising. We proved to the world that the security of the region has to start in Damascus.” Jordan’s King Abdullah II echoed Sharaa’s warnings in his own address Tuesday, arguing that repeated Israeli strikes on Syria prove Israel has territorial expansion ambitions that stretch far beyond the occupied Palestinian territories. Libyan Presidential Council head Mohamed al-Menfi, speaking later in the day, joined the growing chorus of Arab leaders calling for a sovereign Palestinian state, warning that the ongoing failure to resolve the Palestinian issue is the root cause of endless regional conflict and rising extremism. “Neither the Islamic and Christian holy sites, nor civilians and civilian infrastructure have been spared the ravages of this conflict,” he said, adding that the absence of a Palestinian state directly fuels instability across the Arabian Gulf, where nations have faced repeated attacks from Iranian-aligned groups in response to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Menfi also expressed full solidarity with Saudi Arabia amid ongoing Houthi attacks, stating, “The security of the kingdom and the Gulf, given their Arab and Islamic weight, is not a national matter, but a pillar in the security and stability of our region.” He also drew attention to other conflict zones across the Middle East and Africa, noting that the Sudanese people have “paid a heavy price” for an ongoing civil war funded by outside powers, and warned of growing instability across the Sahel region.

Delivering his first address to the United Nations General Assembly just 24 hours after U.S. President Donald Trump issued a brutal threat to “annihilate” the Islamic Republic, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian delivered a defiant yet diplomatic message on Wednesday: Tehran will never capitulate to American pressure, but remains open to negotiated de-escalation.

Speaking directly to Trump, Pezeshkian emphasized that escalating sanctions, coercive pressure and intimidation tactics would only strengthen Iranian resolve. “The resistance of the Iranian people will only increase in the face of sanctions, increased pressure, increased bullying. We will never bow our head or bend at the knee,” he told the assembled global delegation. To open his address, Pezeshkian held up a portrait of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s 86-year-old Supreme Leader, who was assassinated in the opening strikes of the joint U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran launched last February amid stalled nuclear negotiations.

He also displayed graphic photographs of Iranian children killed in U.S. airstrikes, alongside images of their graves. One attack on an elementary school in Minab left at least 150 people dead, roughly 120 of whom were children. A second strike, which dispersed thousands of lethal tungsten pellets, targeted a sports complex in the southern Iranian city of Lamerd. Earlier this month, a United Nations fact-finding mission concluded there were “reasonable grounds” to classify these strikes as war crimes, findings that underpinned Pezeshkian’s critique of U.S. and Israeli military action.

The conflict that began in February has dragged on for months, with two successive ceasefire agreements collapsing, and drawn in regional actors from Arab Gulf states to Yemen and Lebanon, raising fears of a full regional escalation.

Pezeshkian pushed back against long-standing U.S. claims that Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism, arguing that the label is a cynical misrepresentation by the actors that initiated the current war. “Those who are terrorists, and train and protect terrorists, describe us as such. We have only defended ourselves. We are not terrorists. America and Israel attacked us,” he said. He added that Iran has not launched an offensive attack against any other sovereign state in more than two centuries, yet remains branded a rogue actor by Western powers.

Addressing the core nuclear dispute that the Trump administration has cited as a key justification for war, Pezeshkian reaffirmed Iran’s long-held position that Tehran has no interest in developing a nuclear weapon, but will not abandon its right to peaceful civilian nuclear technology. He pointedly noted the contradiction in U.S. framing: the Trump administration has claimed Iran is close to building a nuclear bomb, even as it boasts that it destroyed Iran’s entire nuclear program in 2025 pre-war strikes.

“Iran does not accept for nuclear technology to be at the exclusive disposal of some,” Pezeshkian said. “We will not bow our head and give up the right that is inherently ours. We say it clearly: no nuclear weapons and no limitations to peaceful nuclear technology.” He also called out what he framed as blatant hypocrisy from the U.S. and Israel, noting that the international community allows Israel to maintain an open secret nuclear arsenal while forcing unprecedented inspections and restrictions on Iran’s peaceful program. “Atomic and nuclear bombs are in the hands of the Israeli regime, but the inspectors are requested to come to Iran. The nuclear weapon is in Israel, but the inspectors are in Iran. Israel kills, but Iran is subject to sanctions. They kill. We are sanctioned. We are punished,” he said.

The Trump administration has also pointed to Iran’s ballistic missile program as a core threat to justify military action. In response, Pezeshkian said Iran has every right to maintain a robust defensive military capability to deter potential attacks, noting that its military posture is never aimed at regional hegemony. “Iran must be powerful, so as to avoid being threatened. We do not wish to use our power for hegemony,” he said. “Our defensive systems have been built so that no one can think that the bombing of Iranian cities can go unanswered.”

Pezeshkian also pushed back against U.S. claims that widespread domestic protests earlier this year justified the invasion, arguing that the unrest was orchestrated by Washington and Tel Aviv to undermine Iranian stability, while the overwhelming majority of Iranians support the Islamic Republic. “The people of Iran have been in the street demonstrating in support of their homeland,” he said, adding that pro-government supporters had stood guard against “equipped, armed and trained by America and Israel to cause insecurity in our country.”

The UNGA address comes alongside behind-the-scenes diplomatic engagement: U.S. and Iranian officials held talks on the sidelines of the General Assembly Tuesday, a meeting Iranian state media framed as direct negotiations, a characterization that Trump appeared to confirm before the U.S. later walked it back to describe the engagement as indirect.

As part of new diplomatic proposals, Iran has submitted updated preconditions to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global energy chokepoint that has become a major flashpoint in the conflict, with both Washington and Tehran imposing rival blockades on the waterway. A senior Iranian official told Agence France-Presse that Tehran’s terms have hardened, now requiring the immediate release of $24 billion in Iranian funds frozen by Western sanctions and an end to Saudi Arabia’s blockade of Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen, a key Iranian ally.

The most recent ceasefire extension, agreed by Iran and the U.S. in June, collapsed over the summer in large part over disputes surrounding the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has pushed to impose tolls on commercial shipping passing through the waterway. Pezeshkian defended Iran’s position on the strait, arguing that it is unreasonable to allow foreign powers to benefit from the waterway while using it as a tool to pressure Iran. “In the Strait of Hormuz, we can’t let some have free access and gain their interests from a waterway, while at the same time using that waterway to impose their aggressions upon us… to forbid us access to our own waterways,” he said.

Iranian reprisals for the U.S.-Israeli attacks have fallen disproportionately on U.S. Arab Gulf allies, stoking regional pressure for a new diplomatic approach. Earlier this week, both Qatar and the United Arab Emirates called for renewed engagement with Iran and the negotiation of a new regional security framework to end the ongoing conflict.

A new organized Eritrean opposition movement targeting the long-standing government of President Isaias Afwerki has set up one of its key international coordination hubs in a southern Tel Aviv warehouse, according to an exclusive investigative report from Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Calling itself Brigade Nhamedu, the group says it is building a unified global political structure to mobilize the large community of Eritrean exiles scattered across the world, with the end goal of returning to Eritrea to dislodge Afwerki’s administration. The movement recently held a global vote that brought together Eritrean diaspora communities across 17 countries to select a 51-member international governing council. Approximately 1,300 Eritreans based in Israel cast their ballots last month in the central Israeli city of Nes Ziona, as part of that electoral process. Since the council’s formation, it has held weekly virtual and in-person sessions to map out strategy, covering everything from fundraising and diplomatic outreach to plans for establishing a forward operating base in neighboring Ethiopia and maintaining secure communication with dissident activists inside Eritrea, the report confirms.

Brigade Nhamedu is headed by veteran Eritrean dissident Beyene Gerezgiher, who operates out of Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, with specialized departments covering finance, diplomatic engagement, community organizing, and military planning already structured within the movement. “Behind us are masses of people ready to fight for their country,” Gerezgiher told Haaretz in an interview, adding that the movement already has embedded sources inside Eritrea, including among senior civilian government and military officials. Haaretz noted that it could not independently verify this claim of insider access. Gerezgiher also emphasized broad public discontent within Eritrea, stating “We know the masses are waiting for us, especially in Asmara,” Eritrea’s capital city.

The emergence of this organized opposition base on Israeli soil comes amid a sharp downward spiral in diplomatic relations between Asmara and Tel Aviv. The two countries established formal diplomatic ties immediately after Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 – the same year that Afwerki was evacuated to Israel for life-saving medical treatment after contracting severe cerebral malaria. But relations have cooled steadily over the decades, culminating in Israel’s decision to close its embassy in Asmara in 2022.

In an interview with Middle East Eye earlier this month, Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh clarified that Asmara had deliberately chosen to cut formal ties with Israel. “We decided we didn’t want their [Israeli] embassy here,” Saleh said. “We are not antagonistic to Israel, but we just decided we didn’t want any relations.” He also questioned Israel’s expanding strategic ambitions in the Horn of Africa, particularly its growing security and economic partnership with the breakaway region of Somaliland. “We have to ask why Israel is running to control the Horn of Africa. Why do they need a base in Somaliland?” he asked. A separate anonymous senior Eritrean official told Middle East Eye that Asmara rejected a 2016 request from the United Arab Emirates to build a shared Israeli-Emirati military facility on an island in Eritrea’s Dahlak Archipelago.

Afwerki, now 82 years old, has held uninterrupted power in Eritrea since independence in 1993. The country has not held a national election in nearly three decades, its post-independence constitution has never been enacted, and all independent domestic media outlets have been shut down by the government. The regime’s policy of indefinite compulsory national service is widely documented as the primary driver of mass emigration, with an estimated two million Eritreans now living as refugees or asylum seekers outside their home country. Brigade Nhamedu’s core organizing strategy centers on uniting these fragmented diaspora communities into a cohesive political force capable of challenging the Asmara government.

Two Eritrean exiles who have built new lives in Israel lead the movement’s operations in the country: Atakliti Abraham Michael and Mulue Sultan. Michael told Haaretz that his dissident activism has already had devastating personal costs for his family, who remained in Eritrea after he fled. One of his sons was imprisoned for two years before successfully escaping Eritrea, he said, while his 14-year-old youngest son remains in state detention and is set to be conscripted into the military once his sentence is completed. “First of all, I’m fighting to get back to my children,” Michael said. “We have our national story, but each person also has his own personal story.” Sultan, who arrived in Israel as an asylum seeker in 2008, added that even Eritreans who have established stable lives abroad overwhelmingly hope to return home once the political situation changes. “No one wants to be a refugee forever, everyone wants to go home,” he said.

Brigade Nhamedu rose to global prominence following a wave of violent confrontations between pro-government and opposition Eritrean communities across multiple countries over the past two years. In September 2023, large-scale clashes broke out in Tel Aviv around a pro-government event organized by the Eritrean embassy. A May 2025 United Nations report cited by Haaretz records that at least nine Eritreans, from both the pro- and anti-government camps, have been killed in violent clashes within Israel since that incident.

Dawit Teferi, Brigade Nhamedu’s Washington-based finance director, said the movement did not anticipate the outbreak of violence and regrets the loss of life. He added, however, that the clashes exposed the depth of political anger among Eritreans abroad and accelerated efforts to build a formal, structured opposition movement. Teferi has already traveled to Washington to court support from members of the U.S. Congress and senior Biden administration officials, arguing that the U.S., Israel, and Gulf Arab states all have clear strategic interests in backing a new friendly government in the strategically located Red Sea nation.

Gerezgiher acknowledged that informal outreach to Western and regional powers has not yet resulted in official recognition for the movement, and stressed that Brigade Nhamedu cannot achieve its goals without sustained international backing. He confirmed that the movement has not yet recruited a armed fighting force, but is actively preparing for a moment when it can enter Eritrea to confront the government. “We’re ready for the right moment,” he said. “And I think we’re close to it. Very close.”

Three years of violent conflict have robbed nearly an entire generation of Palestinian children in Gaza of consistent, formal education — but for 13-year-old Akram Helles, the first day of the 2026 school year marked a long-awaited return to learning. On a sweltering September morning, the seventh-grader squeezed onto a thin foam mattress alongside dozens of classmates inside a white makeshift tent, the new campus of Gaza Municipality Preparatory School in Gaza City’s western Rimal neighborhood. At the front of the canvas structure, a single large whiteboard leans against the tent pole, with one small wooden chair set aside for their teacher. Temperatures inside climb to oppressive heights, and all students sit directly on the packed dirt ground, but none of that dims Helles’ excitement to be back in a classroom after years of interrupted schooling.\n\nAkram’s father, 38-year-old Mohammad Helles, told Middle East Eye that the family still can barely believe their son has finally accessed structured in-person learning after everything they have survived. Since the outbreak of full-scale conflict in 20023, Akram and his two siblings spent extended periods completely out of school, he explained. Remote online learning was unworkable for most families, and private schooling was completely out of reach, leaving the children trapped in educational limbo for years.\n\nAkram’s story is far from unique. According to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), roughly 700,000 Gaza students have been locked out of formal education since the conflict began. When the 2026 school year launched last Sunday, approximately 500,000 children were able to return to in-person learning for the first time in three years: 350,000 enrolled in public school programs, and another 150,000 joined facilities run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).\n\nBut the learning environments these children have returned to bear almost no resemblance to the schools they attended before the war. UNICEF data confirms that 98 percent of all schools across the Gaza Strip have sustained damage from Israeli military operations, with 80 percent hit directly by strikes. Most of the few surviving school buildings have been converted into emergency shelters for the hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians, leaving no space for regular classes.\n\nWorking in partnership with UNICEF, UNRWA and other international organizations, Gaza’s Ministry of Education has established a limited number of temporary learning spaces in displacement shelters and plastic tent campuses across the territory. Nearly all of these makeshift facilities lack basic necessities: there are almost no desks, chairs, or core infrastructure to support normal school operations.\n\nEven with these temporary spaces set up, access remains out of reach for thousands of children. The Helles family endured a long, frustrating process before they were able to secure enrollment for Akram and his siblings at a learning site near their displacement camp. Mohammad Helles explained that the family prioritized a local campus for a devastating reason: with the constant threat of sudden bombardment, they refuse to send children to schools far from home, and widespread transport collapse means even if they wanted to travel, distant schools are inaccessible.\n\nSecuring a spot is only the first hurdle. Helles, who lost his permanent job when the war began and now earns a meager income helping his brother run a small street stall, says he cannot afford even basic school supplies for his three children. Market prices for essential goods have skyrocketed amid the ongoing humanitarian crisis, and he has only been able to purchase the absolute bare minimum, forgoing extra clothing and non-essential supplies that most students take for granted.\n\nThe fragmented, under-resourced nature of Gaza’s 2026 school year extends far beyond a lack of supplies. To stretch limited classroom space as far as possible, the Ministry of Education introduced a rotational attendance system: boys attend classes three days a week (Saturdays, Mondays, Wednesdays), while girls attend on alternate days (Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays). Each school day is split into three separate shifts to cram as many students as possible into the limited available space.\n\nWhile the Helles children secured spots in free public education, hundreds of other families remain locked out entirely. Forty-three-year-old Osama Ayta has spent weeks searching for placements for his 8-year-old daughter Maria and 11-year-old son Thaer, with no luck. There is no free public school within safe distance of his current home, and sending the children long distances is unthinkable: roads are unsafe, social conditions remain unstable, and he lives in constant fear of harm coming to his children far from his side. Private schools, which have begun to reopen in limited numbers since the January 2025 ceasefire, charge tuition fees that Ayta, who has no steady source of income, cannot possibly pay. He has temporarily placed his children in a free informal learning center, but conditions there are dire, with no functional facilities, and he continues to search for a safer, more stable option.\n\nThe struggles of families like the Aytas lay bare the full scale of Gaza’s unfolding education crisis as the territory launches its first full formal school year since 2023. Wafa Maqat, 57-year-old principal of Gaza Municipality Preparatory School, told Middle East Eye that demand for placement far outstrips available capacity, and the daily challenges of running classes are almost overwhelming. \n\n“ We have very large numbers of students and overcrowded classrooms, while there is barely any school furniture. At our school, for example, there are no tables, chairs or cupboards,” Maqat said.\n\nOfficial Ministry of Education data confirms that only 208 government schools have been able to reopen for the 2026 year — less than a third of the 624 schools that would be required to accommodate all enrolled students. The ministry says it is working with international partners to build more temporary learning spaces to ease the shortage, but progress has been slow amid ongoing resource constraints.\n\nMaqat’s own school offers a stark snapshot of the systemic strain. The campus accommodates more than 350 students per shift, for a total enrollment of more than 2,100 children — and it only has four working bathrooms. “The sanitation situation is extremely difficult. There are too many students for four bathrooms, and there is not enough water. We are constantly facing water shortages,” Maqat explained. The school also lacks a dedicated drinking water tank, exacerbating the broader water crisis that has left displaced Gaza families in desperate straits.\n\nBeyond the current challenges of sweltering heat and overcrowding, schools operating out of tents are already bracing for the coming winter season. “In winter, we face major problems, whether it is the darkness inside the tents because there is no electricity, or rainwater flooding the floors. This forces students to get up from their mattresses and attend lessons standing,” Maqat said.\n\nThese harsh conditions make it far harder for educators to address the massive learning gap that has opened up after three years of missed school. “We are expected at this stage to make up for lost educational skills and bridge the gap. But the reality forces us to deal with basic survival problems on many levels simultaneously,” Maqat added. The Ministry of Education also cites widespread shortages of stationery and whiteboards, plus drastically low compensation for teachers, as additional barriers to rebuilding Gaza’s shattered education system.\n\nAs education officials struggle to address the crisis, families like the Aytas continue their daily fight to secure safe, consistent learning for their children. “After everything my children have lost in skills over the past years, we simply cannot afford to let them lose any more,” Ayta said. “I will keep searching until I ensure my children receive an education.”

The 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly kicked off this Tuesday at UN Headquarters in New York, with outgoing Secretary-General António Guterres using his final opening address to frame a defining shift in global order and issue an urgent plea to end the bloodshed across the Middle East.

Guterres opened by declaring that the global transition to a multipolar world is an irreversible process, noting that even the world’s most powerful nations are now facing hard limits on the reach of their influence. “Military power alone cannot secure peace. Economic power alone cannot command stability. And technological power alone cannot guarantee security,” he told assembled world leaders. He argued that a interconnected multipolar system can lay the groundwork for more equitable, representative global problem-solving—if that system is anchored by a balanced, inclusive United Nations at its core.

Turning to the escalating crisis in the Middle East, Guterres condemned the hollow ceasefire agreements that have done little to stop civilian harm. “So-called ceasefires have amounted to little more than ‘lesser fires’, with civilians continuing to pay the price,” he said. “Enough is enough. I appeal to the leaders in this chamber to maximise this high-level week for de-escalation and dialogue. Let’s send a clear message from this hall: the fighting must stop.” He warned leaders against abandoning the decades-long push for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, marking nearly one year since the October 7 Hamas attacks that killed roughly 1,200 Israelis. He called the subsequent Israeli military campaign in Gaza an “onslaught” of killing and destruction unseen during his tenure as secretary-general, adding that expanding Israeli settlements and escalating violence in the occupied West Bank are erasing the last paths to peace and raising the alarming threat of ethnic cleansing. “We cannot allow the two-state solution to disappear before our eyes,” he stressed.

Following a longstanding UN tradition that grants Brazil the floor as the first member state to address the assembly, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva delivered a sharp rebuke of unilateral power plays and growing global militarism, without directly naming US President Donald Trump. Lula centered his speech on the legacy of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, two architects of the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords who he framed as the kind of statesmanship the world desperately needs amid today’s global scourge of war. “We are called to choose between multilateralism and unilateralism. Democracy or extremism. Sovereignty or subordination,” Lula said, warning that trillions of dollars are now fueling a new global arms race. Recounting the legacy of Arafat and Rabin—who were ultimately killed by extremists opposed to their peace deal—Lula said they “challenged the past to envision a future of peace” and were ultimately defeated by hatred.

Lula explicitly condemned what he called Israel’s genocide in Gaza, where official Palestinian health authorities estimate nearly 74,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed since the start of the Israeli campaign. He acknowledged that Israeli civilians also suffer from the “radicalism and intolerance of Hamas terrorist acts,” but said generations of Palestinians will carry the trauma of the killings perpetrated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

The Brazilian leader also pushed back against US efforts to undermine the International Criminal Court, which issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in November 2024 over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. “Persecuting the International Criminal Court and its members encourages these crimes to go unpunished,” he said. He also defended UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, who faced US sanctions earlier this year that were only lifted after a federal judge ruled they violated her First Amendment rights to free speech. “The UN special rapporteur must not be silenced for telling the truth,” Lula added.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II followed with a blistering condemnation of Israeli policy, accusing the Israeli government of committing widespread war crimes across Gaza and the occupied West Bank, and warning that its territorial expansionism extends far beyond Palestinian lands. He accused Israel of intentionally inciting a religious war, framing its conflict with Palestinians as a battle between Judaism and Christianity on one side and Islam on the other. “This [Israeli] government’s sense of impunity has reached terrifying levels,” he said. “No one in this assembly should assume this Israeli government’s appetite stops at Palestine,” he added, pointing to Israeli attacks and occupation of Syrian territory.

King Abdullah cited the recent US-Israeli military campaign against Iran as proof that Middle Eastern instability carries global ripple effects. “If anyone had any doubt that conflict in our part of the world stays there, just look at the energy and grocery bills from ordinary families from Mumbai to Madrid to Minnesota,” he said. “The Iran war has shown how quickly instability can disrupt trade, investment and lives beyond the region.” He criticized the international community for choosing to merely manage the Israeli-Palestinian conflict rather than confront its root causes, with catastrophic results. He detailed widespread abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank, where Israeli home demolitions to expand illegal settlements amount to forcible transfer—a war crime—and said Israel is carrying out a de facto annexation of the territory that amounts to a systematic campaign of subjugation. “Gaza and the West Bank are two fronts of the same Israeli strategy. In both, Palestinians are being killed. In both, the reality on the ground is being remade: Gaza through destruction, the West Bank through de facto annexation,” he said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan opened by condemning the ongoing ban on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addressing the General Assembly, marking the second consecutive year Abbas has been barred from attending. Calling the exclusion a blatant injustice, Erdoğan said Turkey would continue to stand as a voice for an independent, sovereign Palestine, urging all nations that have not yet recognized Palestinian statehood to reverse their position. He described the past 12 months as one of the bloodiest periods for global conflict in three decades, drawing particular attention to the ongoing violence in Gaza. “We lost [thousands of Palestinians] to what we regard as acts of state terror by Israel,” he said.

Erdoğan noted that even after a US- and Turkish-mediated ceasefire deal was reached between Israel and Palestinian factions in October 2025, more than 1,500 additional Palestinians have been killed in Gaza. While Palestinian resistance groups have followed through on their commitments to move forward with the second phase of the peace plan, he said the Israeli government continues to refuse to end its occupation of Palestinian territories. He added that the occupied West Bank is facing its worst wave of Israeli settler violence in modern history, with data from the Palestinian Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission showing a 63 percent jump in settler attacks in the first seven months of 2026 compared to the same period last year.

Erdoğan also joined calls for sweeping UN reform, arguing that the current global body structure is controlled by the five permanent members of the Security Council and fails to represent the interests of the broader global community of more than 190 member states. “The United Nations, established 81 years ago to maintain peace and security, has become unable to fulfil this mission, or rather it has been made unable to do so,” he said. On the ongoing conflict between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Houthi movement, Erdoğan said Turkey continues to work with all parties to reach a negotiated end to the conflict, noting that prolonging the fighting benefits no one. Houthi forces have recently stepped up attacks on Saudi territory and taken control of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a critical global energy chokepoint.

Qatar’s ruling Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani warned that the Gulf region is entering one of its most dangerous phases in modern history, brought on by decades of delaying meaningful conflict resolution through temporary fixes and unworkable policy. He stressed the urgent need for a regional collective security framework that respects national sovereignty, territorial integrity, the peaceful resolution of disputes and non-interference in internal affairs. “In the absence of such a system, it becomes possible for a war to erupt,” he said. “It has become possible for one party to drag its neighbours into a war that is not theirs, targeting their vital assets and installations despite their strenuous efforts to avert escalation.”

Qatar has found itself drawn into the ongoing conflict between the US, Israel and Iran despite its best efforts to stay neutral and avoid escalation. Iranian attacks on Qatar’s Ras Laffan energy complex damaged two major liquefied natural gas (LNG) processing trains and a gas-to-liquids plant, taking roughly 17 percent of the country’s total LNG export capacity offline temporarily, according to QatarEnergy. The conflict has also completely shut down the Strait of Hormuz—through which roughly a quarter of the world’s global energy trade passes—severely disrupting Qatar’s energy exports and roiling global energy markets. As a result, Al Thani said, food and medicine prices have spiked on every continent, harming the livelihoods of ordinary people with no connection to the conflict.

The Qatari emir called for a diplomatic resolution to the Gulf crisis, urging the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and a return to negotiations to prevent full-scale regional war. On the Palestinian issue, he condemned Israeli leaders who openly advocate for the forced displacement of Gaza’s population, which they frame as “migration.” He called on Israel to meet its international commitments: end all military operations in Gaza, withdraw all forces from the besieged territory, lift the illegal 19-year blockade on Gaza, and allow unimpeded access for humanitarian aid. “There can be no talk of a just international order as long as Palestine remains a blind spot within it,” he said. “Dealing with Israel, putting an end to the harm it causes, and restraining its unlawful conduct constitutes the true test of the international community’s seriousness in upholding values and the rule of law. The law must apply equally to all.”

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has not retreated from its legal actions against senior Israeli officials, even as the United States ramps up punitive pressure and broad sanctions against the court’s leadership and institutional operations, ICC Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan has confirmed in an exclusive interview with CNN.

In the weekend interview, Khan made clear the court’s investigation into alleged atrocities in Gaza remains on track, with no moves initiated to withdraw any existing arrest warrants or pending applications. “The case is still proceeding,” she stated. “We have taken no steps to try and withdraw any of those arrest warrant applications or the arrest warrants themselves, and the team continues to investigate in that situation.”

The legal process began in November 2024, when ICC judges issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant. The warrants stem from allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the military campaign in Gaza that launched in October 2023. Israel, which is not a member state of the ICC, has launched two appeals against the rulings, one of which challenges the court’s fundamental jurisdiction over Israeli citizens. Both appeals are currently pending.

Beyond the high-profile warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, reporting from independent outlet Middle East Eye (MEE) reveals the ICC prosecutor’s office has advanced additional investigations into other senior Israeli leaders over the past two years. In May 2025, MEE disclosed that prosecutors had submitted a confidential application for an arrest warrant targeting Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, over alleged offenses against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. The charges against Smotrich include forced displacement classified as both a war crime and crime against humanity, the transfer of Israeli civilian populations into occupied territory (a recognized war crime), and persecution and apartheid as crimes against humanity. An evidence review has also been completed to evaluate two additional arrest warrant applications, one of which names Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

Khan’s defiant comments come in the context of an aggressive, escalating campaign against the Hague-based permanent court from the second Trump administration. In July 2025, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio publicly declared that Washington would deploy every available policy tool to “dismantle the ICC – brick by brick, if necessary”, and called on all ICC member states to cut their financial and political support for the institution. In subsequent public remarks, Rubio launched verbal attacks on the court, labeling it a “stupid organisation” run by “lunatics and crazies”, and warned of severe consequences if the ICC attempts to exercise jurisdiction over American citizens.

In August 2025, the US imposed asset freezes and transaction bans on Khan, fellow Deputy Prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang, and two sitting ICC judges, expanding sanctions that were already levied against former chief prosecutor Karim Khan, nine judges including the ICC president, and most other senior court leaders. The sanctions block any assets held by targeted individuals in US jurisdictions, and bar all American individuals and companies from providing funds, goods, or services to the sanctioned officials.

Khan detailed the tangible personal and professional harms the sanctions have imposed. Sanctioned ICC leaders lose access to international banking services, have their credit cards revoked, and can only process financial transactions within the Single Euro Payments Area in Europe, she explained. She added that third-party service providers, including global health insurance firms, have cut ties with sanctioned personnel, and family members of targeted officials may be barred from entering the United States. Khan also noted she has never received an official explanation for her designation, but said she has no doubt the sanctions are retaliation for her role as a senior leader in the ICC prosecutor’s office.

Against this pressure, Khan reaffirmed the court’s unwavering commitment to its mandate rooted in the Rome Statute, the founding treaty that was negotiated over decades and adopted by the sovereign decision of the court’s member states. “The work of the court continues unabated,” she emphasized. “We have trials in court. We have a trial scheduled for November of this year and one for next year. We have, in the course of the last year, seen convictions in two major trials, and we continue to conduct our investigations and our prosecutions, and appear in court on a regular basis, regardless of these events.”

Established in 2002, the ICC is the world’s only permanent international court with authority to prosecute senior officials for four core international crimes: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression. Beyond its investigation into alleged crimes in Palestinian territory, the court currently oversees more than a dozen active investigations across global conflict zones, including Ukraine, Darfur, Libya, and Afghanistan.

Khan acknowledged that the court and its staff operate under unprecedented levels of external pressure. “The nature of the work that we do means that we inevitably will face pressure of all sorts to try and toe a political line, for instance, or to take a different position on the charging of accused persons, or to follow a path in investigation and prosecution,” she said. “So, indeed, we do feel pressure, but, as I’ve said, the dedication of our staff is extraordinary, and they continue to do their work.”

Reports from international policy circles indicate the Trump administration is now drafting even broader institutional sanctions that would target the ICC as an organization, rather than just individual leaders. The proposed measures could cut the court off from all US dollar transactions, and restrict its access to global banking, insurance, and core technology services.

Despite the mounting threats to the court’s operations, Khan said she retains hope for the future of international accountability. “The work that we do for victims, the fact that we continue to hear their voices stridently, with so much sincerity – they believe in this court,” she said. “For them, this provides an avenue of justice that may not necessarily be provided in many courts around the world. Every single member of this court works for humanity, and there can be nothing better than that.”