World leaders return to UN amid wars in Middle East and Ukraine, AI fears

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) — World leaders gather in New York this week for the UN General Assembly, bracing for US President Donald Trump’s return to the rostrum for a second year running, with talks centering on the widening conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, and the risks of artificial intelligence.

Nearly 130 heads of state will meet with the post-World War II order under strain, and with the UN itself struggling to remain relevant and weathering attacks from Trump, who has slashed America’s contributions and withdrawn from dozens of UN bodies.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who last addressed the diplomatic gathering via video in 2021, will skip New York in favor of one-on-one talks with Trump in Washington on Thursday, fueling debate about the UN’s relevance in addressing global crises.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to speak on Thursday and is scheduled to be in New York for only about a day. Trump, who is set to speak on Tuesday, is not expected to meet with him.

Compounding the crisis of morale and finance are questions about the next leader of the 80-year-old organization: Secretary-General Antonio Guterres completes his term at the end of 2026, with no clear frontrunner in the race to replace him.

The 15-member UN Security Council may hold high-level meetings on Ukraine, AI and the Middle East, including talks with Arab leaders, diplomats said.

More than a year into Trump’s second term, “we would no longer say that the UN is in freefall, but we would say that it’s stuck in an open-ended crisis,” said Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group. “The UN may not be in emergency care like it was last year, but it seems to be trapped in a trauma center for the foreseeable future.”

The US avoided losing its vote at the assembly by paying $725 million in contributions to the regular budget this week, but it still owes the organization more than a billion dollars and makes ongoing demands for cuts and reforms.

Fears of growing AI risks

The assembly meets shortly after several artificial intelligence industry leaders called for a coordinated slowdown of the development of the technology, warning that it could soon improve on its own and escape human control.

Guterres has said that AI will be a major topic, adding that countries pushing its frontiers should set up “common guardrails in order to avoid this race to the bottom that could lead one day to a gigantic disaster at the global level.”

The secretary-general has long proposed global governance of AI. In 2023, the UN created an advisory body on the technology, with members including tech executives, government officials and academics.

The warning has put Guterres at odds with Trump, who dismissed AI risks as a “hoax,” saying there is a “sick conspiracy” against it and that China would benefit from the doubt being cast on its development.

A focus on the Middle East

The Middle East will again be a focus of discussions, as conflict between the US and Iran continues to drive global inflation and destabilize the region. Recent gains by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who are fighting a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, threaten shipping in ​the vital Bab el-Mandeb Strait and could further spike energy prices.

“It’s very difficult to have a military solution for that problem, and the experience of fighting in Yemen demonstrated how complicated it is to have successful interventions,” said Guterres, adding that the UN’s envoy on Yemen was making a “huge effort” to advance talks.

Peace talks remain stalled, however, as Iran and the US continue to exchange strikes and Trump threatens a major escalation of the war.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is scheduled to address the assembly on Wednesday.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will for the second year running not be at the gathering in person, as the US again denied him a visa. On Thursday, the General Assembly voted to allow Abbas to appear via video.

There is likely to be a high-level meeting on the conflict in Sudan on the sidelines, diplomats said, although a diplomatic breakthrough is unlikely.

Discussions expected on Ukraine

Also on the agenda is Russia’s over-four-year-old war in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will address the General Assembly. Zelensky will likely seek to shore up Ukraine’s position ahead of what is expected to be another tough winter, diplomats said.

The Security Council has been unable to take action to end the conflict because permanent member Russia holds a veto.

Trump has at times appeared frustrated that he has been unable to broker an end to the war, a goal he declared a priority when he began his second term in January last year. The US president spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin earlier this month, but it was unclear whether he plans to meet Zelensky in New York.

Guterres highlighted the impact the war was having on civilians but also on food security and energy prices.

“The effective blockade existing in the Black Sea is creating enormous problems that add to the problems generated by the Middle East crisis, and I think it would be very important to find a way to allow Ukrainian exports and Russian exports of food, fertilizers and energy to take place in a safe way through the Black Sea,” he said.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.