UN General Assembly tests unity as Trump assails the U.N.; world focus shifts to Israel, Iran

The United Nations General Assembly in New York entered its midway point amid sharp divisions and rising pressure for reform, with President Donald Trump delivering a blistering critique of the world body and calling out its perceived failure to keep the peace. In a speech that echoed long-running U.S. demands for reform, he pressed the case that the UN has become “empty words” and argued that such words do not solve war. He also defended Israel against what he described as unbalanced criticism tied to calls for a Palestinian state, framing the issue as a continuation of Hamas’ attacks and a barrier to lasting peace.

Trump’s remarks underscored a broader sense of dissonance at the annual gathering, where his criticism of the UN’s effectiveness collided with continuous diplomacy on the sidelines. On the floor, some European leaders offered pointed critiques of Israel’s actions in Gaza and its broader regional policy. United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron joined others in voicing worries that regional security could require difficult compromises and even, in some cases, recognition moves that critics argued would reward violent attacks. Several European states, including Canada and Australia, were cited in the chatter around the hall as among the nations weighing their positions in a crowded debate. On the more surprising side, Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad articulated a tolerant tone toward dialogue with Jerusalem and a willingness to uphold disengagement understandings that place a UN-patrolled buffer zone along their border.

Argentina’s President Javier Milei signaled a hard line on Hamas violence, endorsing Trump’s stance on UN reform and calling for the immediate release of hostages while tying Islamist attacks to broader regional and global terrorism histories. In another notable shift, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto — representing the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country — invited nations seeking peace in the Middle East to recognize Israel and acknowledge its security needs, a move that drew attention for its atypical alignment among Muslim-majority states at the assembly’s debates. As the speeches unfolded, European leaders also signaled a renewed push toward potentially reimposing UN sanctions on Iran using the UN’s snapback mechanism, a process with a September 27 deadline that remains a focal point for the diplomacy surrounding the gathering.

As the event moves toward its second half, observers say much of the hard work occurs away from the dais. The sidelines of the General Assembly continue to be a forum for back-channel diplomacy, enabling one-on-one conversations that can produce real-world deals while sparing thousands of international flight hours on bilateral visits. The United States’ hosting role has been scrutinized at times for visa denials and access issues for some delegates, a reminder that even in a city built for global gathering, the logistics of diplomacy can influence outcomes as much as the rhetoric on the floor. Edmund Fitton-Brown, a former UK ambassador to Yemen and a former UN coordinator who is now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, noted that the value of the assembly often lies in the margins where private negotiations unfold and quiet understandings form the path toward broader consensus.

With the clock ticking toward the Sept. 27 deadline, the international community keenly watches whether the United States and its allies can secure reforms at the UN that might temper its conflicts, or whether the assembly’s raucous debates will yield only more rhetoric and limited policy shifts. Amid the discord, the gathering also serves as a reminder that the world’s most pressing crises require cooperation that transcends individual speeches, and that diplomacy often travels in unseen corridors between sessions.