The day so far
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Iran’s president said his country’s people had been the “victims of terrorism” by the United States. Delivering a rare wartime speech at the UN General Assembly, Pezeshkian displayed images of the late supreme leader Ali Khamenei and more than 150 schoolchildren killed in the opening days of the conflict.
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“We have only defended ourselves. We are not terrorists,” Pezeshkian said at the General Assembly. “Our innocent people have been the targets of cowardly attacks and aggressions imposed upon our country. And we defended ourselves with utmost strength. America and Israel attacked us.”
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On the strait of Hormuz, Pezeshkian said: “We cannot let some have free access and gain their interest from a waterway, while at the same time using that waterway to impose their aggressions upon us, to impose insecurity upon us, to forbid us access to our own waterways.” He also warns that any “expansion of warfare will not result in security.”
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Argentine president Javier Milei attacked the UN in a speech to the world body, calling it a “useless organization” filled with “arrogant parasites.” The firebrand Milei, one of US president Donald Trump’s closest Latin American allies, has repeatedly used the UN platform to criticise global governance and its “woke” agenda.
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Milei accused the United Nations of having failed in its duty to guarantee collective security and human rights, saying it had instead allowed “chaos, violence and international terrorism” to flourish. The UN, he said, “has become a useless organization, serving only to feed a caste of fatally arrogant parasites disguised as well-intentioned bureaucrats.”
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The United States has invited Russian president Vladimir Putin to attend the G20 summit of world leaders being held in Miami in December, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said. “In order to solve problems, you have to meet with the people that you disagree with or the people that you might have some issues with, so we’ve invited president Putin to the G20.
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US secretary of state Marco Rubio said after meeting with Russia’s Sergei Lavrov that both Russia and Ukraine had expressed interest in a limited ceasefire involving grain and energy. “We would be open to playing a constructive role in making that happen,” he said, quoted by Reuters.
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Paraguay’s president Santiago Pena called for Venezuela’s reintegration into the South American trade bloc Mercosur, speaking to world leaders at the UN General Assembly earlier today. Venezuela has been indefinitely suspended as a member of Mercosur, which comprises some of South America’s biggest economies, including Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
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Syria’s interim president harshly criticized Israel’s occupation of southern Syria and said the Golan Heights is an inseparable part of his country. In a speech to the UN General Assembly, Ahmad al-Sharaa said that Israel has carried out more than 500 air and artillery strikes on the country since he took power nearly two years ago. Israel has also carried out 1,200 land incursions and detained nearly 300 people, he said.
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The Kremlin has responded to Andy Burnham’s speech at the UN general assembly, accusing the UK prime minister of “stoking anti-Russian sentiment”. Burnham told the UN yesterday that his government would set up a new national centre to tackle information attacks by foreign powers and singled out Russia over what he described as the spread of disinformation.
Key events
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Cypriot president calls out Turkish ‘hypocrisy’ and urges Erdoğan to implement UN charter
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The day so far
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US invites Putin to attend G20 summit, says Rubio
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Milei criticises UN, calls it ineffective over Falklands Island dispute with the UK
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‘Russia’s aggressive posture poses a direct threat to European security,’ Czechia’s Pavel says
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US delegation walks out from Iran president’s speech in protest – video
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Russia and Ukraine interested in ‘limited ceasefire’ on grain and energy, US Rubio says
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Empty US, Israeli seats during Iran president Pezeshkian’s speech
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‘We will never bow our head,’ Iran’s president says, as he says country ‘ready for dialogue’ but without threats
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‘We will stand in defence of our beloved Iran until our last breath,’ Iran’s Pezeshkian says
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Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian addresses UN General Assembly
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Two dead, 43 injured in Russian attacks on Kyiv
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US Rubio meets Russia’s Lavrov on the sidelines of UN general assembly debate
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Latvia’s Rinkēvičs warns against hybrid threats ‘as dangerous as conventional wars’
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‘We are all in the same boat’ as ‘the world order is breaking down’, Latvia’s president warns
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UN general assembly debate resumes
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Kremlin hits back at Burnham over UN speech
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A Russian helicopter violated Polish airspace for 42 seconds, Poland says
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Trump’s threat to annihilate Iran to UN general assembly is stunning, even for him – analysis
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Iran’s president Pezeshkian to address UN general assembly
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‘This Russian terror never stops,’ EU ambassador to Kyiv reacts to strikes on capital
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Two dead, 22 injured in Russian attacks on Kyiv, city mayor says
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Kyiv faces ‘particularly severe’ attacks disrupting daily life
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‘The world has changed, so should the UN,’ Finland’s Stubb says
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Burnham navigates diplomatic rapids in first Trump meeting, but turbulent waters lie ahead
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New UK agency to fight ‘information warfare’ from likes of Russia, Burnham tells UN
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Macron’s final UN speech condemns ‘return to the law of the jungle’ with focus on Ukraine, Gaza, West Bank
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At least one dead, seven injured in Russian strikes on Kyiv this morning
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Morning opening: Zelenskyy to present Ukraine’s case to UN leaders
A reminder that Zelenskyy’s speech comes after he met with Donald Trump on the sidelines of the gathering in New York yesterday, after the US president insisted he was working with both sides to end the war, despite little evidence of Vladimir Putin being open to any settlement.
“It’s going to happen, I think, more quickly than people understand,” Trump said in his UN speech.
But Washington has since held separate talks with Moscow – and today said it had invited Putin to the G20 summit in Miami later this year.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is speaking now. We’ll bring you all the key lines here.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, reasserted Israel’s claim to the occupied Golan Heights, in response to Syria’s interm president Ahmed al-Sharaa’s address to member nations earlier.
“But no speech will change reality, al-Jolani: the Golan Heights will always be part of Israel,” Danon wrote on X, using the nom de guerre al-Sharaa went by when he was HTS leader.
Al-Sharaa harshly criticized Israel’s occupation of southern Syria and said the Golan Heights is an inseparable part of his country.
In his speech, he said that Israel has carried out more than 500 air and artillery strikes on Syria since he took power nearly two years ago. Israel has also carried out 1,200 land incursions and detained nearly 300 people, he said.
He also repeatedly invoked UN security council resolution 497, adopted in 1981, which declared Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights “null and void and without international legal effect”.
Most of the Golan Heights plateau has been occupied by Israel since 1967. It was fully annexed in 1981, a move not recognised by most of the international community.
Cypriot president calls out Turkish ‘hypocrisy’ and urges Erdoğan to implement UN charter
Nikos Christodoulides, president of the Republic of Cyprus, told member nations:
The international order is not simply changing. It is being tested in an unprecedented way.
But it is in such times of uncertainty that the fundamental values of multilateralism must be protected:
International law. The charter of the United Nations. Respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity. The peaceful resolution of disputes. Respect for human rights. The equality of states.
In these rapidly changing times, he said, “the credibility of the UN must be preserved. And credibility requires consistency in the application of international law.”
Christodoulides said that 52 years since the illegal Turkish invasion of Cyprus:
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More than a third of the territory of the Republic of Cyprus remains under Turkish occupation
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Tens of thousands of displaced people and their descendants have been prevented from returning to their homes
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Varosha has remained sealed off, with Turkey still defying its clear and specific obligations set out in the relevant UN security council resolutions
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And “we have been experiencing violations of fundamental human rights, the destruction of religious and cultural heritage, and the organized transfer of settlers that constitutes demographic alteration”
“Respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity are not rhetorical figures,” he said. “Nor should they be applied selectively, depending on who the perpetrator is.”
UN Resolutions cannot be applied in one case and ignored in another.
And the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a state cannot depend on its size, its strength, or the passage of time.
This is not just an issue that concerns Cyprus.
It concerns the credibility of the international system itself.
Christodoulides said he listened carefully to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s speech yesterday in which he spoke of international law, and respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states, the illegal occupation, the refugees (in relation to Israel and Palestine).
“However, in relation to Cyprus, Turkey is doing the exact opposite. Maximum hypocrisy,” Christodoulides said.
Mr Erdoğan, if you wish to invoke the charter, you must first implement it.
I remain fully committed to achieving a comprehensive solution.
I am ready to resume negotiations from where they were interrupted in 2017, building on the substantial work that has already been accomplished, within the agreed United Nations framework.
He called on Erdoğan “to allow meaningful negotiations within the framework agreed upon by the UN” to find a solution “that will allow Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots, Maronites, Armenians and Latins to live together in peace, security and prosperity.”
For my part, let me repeat, I am absolutely committed.
Because partition will not be accepted. This cannot and will not be the future of my homeland and my people. Never. Our determination to reunite our island is unwavering.
The day so far
-
Iran’s president said his country’s people had been the “victims of terrorism” by the United States. Delivering a rare wartime speech at the UN General Assembly, Pezeshkian displayed images of the late supreme leader Ali Khamenei and more than 150 schoolchildren killed in the opening days of the conflict.
-
“We have only defended ourselves. We are not terrorists,” Pezeshkian said at the General Assembly. “Our innocent people have been the targets of cowardly attacks and aggressions imposed upon our country. And we defended ourselves with utmost strength. America and Israel attacked us.”
-
On the strait of Hormuz, Pezeshkian said: “We cannot let some have free access and gain their interest from a waterway, while at the same time using that waterway to impose their aggressions upon us, to impose insecurity upon us, to forbid us access to our own waterways.” He also warns that any “expansion of warfare will not result in security.”
-
Argentine president Javier Milei attacked the UN in a speech to the world body, calling it a “useless organization” filled with “arrogant parasites.” The firebrand Milei, one of US president Donald Trump’s closest Latin American allies, has repeatedly used the UN platform to criticise global governance and its “woke” agenda.
-
Milei accused the United Nations of having failed in its duty to guarantee collective security and human rights, saying it had instead allowed “chaos, violence and international terrorism” to flourish. The UN, he said, “has become a useless organization, serving only to feed a caste of fatally arrogant parasites disguised as well-intentioned bureaucrats.”
-
The United States has invited Russian president Vladimir Putin to attend the G20 summit of world leaders being held in Miami in December, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said. “In order to solve problems, you have to meet with the people that you disagree with or the people that you might have some issues with, so we’ve invited president Putin to the G20.
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US secretary of state Marco Rubio said after meeting with Russia’s Sergei Lavrov that both Russia and Ukraine had expressed interest in a limited ceasefire involving grain and energy. “We would be open to playing a constructive role in making that happen,” he said, quoted by Reuters.
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Paraguay’s president Santiago Pena called for Venezuela’s reintegration into the South American trade bloc Mercosur, speaking to world leaders at the UN General Assembly earlier today. Venezuela has been indefinitely suspended as a member of Mercosur, which comprises some of South America’s biggest economies, including Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
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Syria’s interim president harshly criticized Israel’s occupation of southern Syria and said the Golan Heights is an inseparable part of his country. In a speech to the UN General Assembly, Ahmad al-Sharaa said that Israel has carried out more than 500 air and artillery strikes on the country since he took power nearly two years ago. Israel has also carried out 1,200 land incursions and detained nearly 300 people, he said.
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The Kremlin has responded to Andy Burnham’s speech at the UN general assembly, accusing the UK prime minister of “stoking anti-Russian sentiment”. Burnham told the UN yesterday that his government would set up a new national centre to tackle information attacks by foreign powers and singled out Russia over what he described as the spread of disinformation.
US invites Putin to attend G20 summit, says Rubio
The United States has invited Russian president Vladimir Putin to attend the G20 summit of world leaders being held in Miami in December, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said.
“In order to solve problems, you have to meet with the people that you disagree with or the people that you might have some issues with, so we’ve invited president Putin to the G20.
“We think it’s an opportunity for him to engage not just with the president but with other world leaders. We hope that’s an invitation he’ll accept,” Rubio said.
Paraguay’s president Santiago Pena called for Venezuela’s reintegration into the South American trade bloc Mercosur, speaking to world leaders at the UN General Assembly earlier today.
Venezuela has been indefinitely suspended as a member of Mercosur, which comprises some of South America’s biggest economies, including Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Chile’s president Jose Antonio Kast, whose country is an associate member of the bloc, is scheduled to meet with Venezuelan interim president Delcy Rodriguez on the sidelines of the General Assembly on Thursday.
In his speech, Pena also said he wants to see Venezuela undergo a genuine and lasting democratic transition.
Karis says “mutual dependence has begun to be treated as a critical vulnerability” as “aggression, war and conflict risks becoming the new normal”.
He says that millions of people are suffering around the world in places like Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and Myanmar.
Karis goes on to talk about climate change and says the planet is “on fire”.
“The time to act is now,” he says. “Estonia is contributing its share … yes, the world is on fire, troubles and problems mounting before our eyes.”
Estonia’s Alar Karis is up next.
It’s his last UN speech before he gets succeeded by ombudsman and constitutional lawyer Ülle Madise next month.
Reminder that you can watch all speeches here:
Milei criticises UN, calls it ineffective over Falklands Island dispute with the UK
In his speech, Milei makes it clear he is not a fan of the UN by the sound of it and he escalates his rhetoric on the Falkland Islands and the UK.
He says the UN “has become a useless organisation whose only purpose is to sustain a cast of fatally arrogant parasites masquerading as well intentioned bureaucrats.”
He says “the alleged defenders of human rights” repeatedly “failed in their task” as they voted against Israel while “remaining silent in the face of Islamis terrorism and the genocide of Christians in Africa.”
He then gets particularly animated about what he calls the Malvinas Islands – the Falkland Islands – which he says “for us are a national cause.”
“An organisation established to defend the territorial sovereignty of its members decided to look the other way with regard to the situation of the Malvinas Island,” he says.
He criticises the Sea Lion Project, a major offshore oil development located in the North Falkland Basin, and says it shows “an unlawful act” as is not authorised by Argentina.
“What use is a resolution if for decades the other party can act in direct contravention of it?” he asks.
He says “there is no shortage of words or resolution, but what is lacking is consequences.”
“That’s why the Malvinas are not merely an issue between Argentina and the United Kingdom. They also raise a question regarding the ability of this organisation to enforce its own resolutions.”
Milei says the principle of self-determination should not apply for the Falkland Islands as “the population was implanted by the occupying power on a territory whose sovereignty is in dispute.”
“We call on the United Kingdom to resume negotiations with a view to finding a peaceful solution to the sovereignty dispute as required by international law.”
He says somewhat threateningly, without offering more detail that Argentina “will not remain indifferent to those who exploit resources under illegal foreign occupation.”
“I have come to tell you that Argentina is not going to sit around waiting for the UN and the international community to live up to their own mandate. We’re going to take matters into our own hands.”
He then reverts to criticism of the UN as “a bureaucratic leviathan” that deploys “a curious mix of anarchy and tyranny,” showing “impotence in the face of those who break the most basic rules … coupled with Orwellian control and impositions on liberal democracies that abide by the rules.”
He then talks about the Covid-19 pandemic as “a global experiment in social control disguised as science”…
Argentina’s Javier Milei is up next.
Always a colourful figure, let’s see what he says.
‘Russia’s aggressive posture poses a direct threat to European security,’ Czechia’s Pavel says
Meanwhile, Czechia’s Pavel is speaking now, and he joins in warnings about an emerging “power vacuum” in international politics, where “might replaces right.”
Speaking specifically on Ukraine, he warns that “Russia’s aggression continues to inflict enormous suffering on the Ukrainian people, civilians and civilians.”
“Russia’s aggressive posture poses a direct threat to European security as a whole,” he warns, talking about recent incidents involving Russia, including at Leipzig airport in Germany.
But framing his argument more broadly, he says:
“The consequences of aggression reach far beyond Europe. Russia’s war has undermined global food security, disrupting agricultural production, exports and supply chains. Its effects are felt in my country, but even more acutely in parts of Africa and elsewhere, particularly in countries that depend on stable and affordable food supplies.”
He then turns towards Czechia’s bid to get a non-permanent seat on the UN security council for 2032-2033, and to his reflections on AI as he warns that “our ability to govern this technology is not keeping pace with its development.”.
US delegation walks out from Iran president’s speech in protest – video
Back to Pezeshkian’s speech, here is the moment when the US representative walked out in protest at what he was saying:
Back to the main hall, Czechia’s Petr Pavel is the next leader to speak.
A retired general and former chair of the Nato military committee, the 64-year-old’s defence background is rare among European leaders.
Let’s see what he says.
Russia and Ukraine interested in ‘limited ceasefire’ on grain and energy, US Rubio says
Meanwhile, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said after meeting with Russia’s Sergei Lavrov that both Russia and Ukraine had expressed interest in a limited ceasefire involving grain and energy.
“We would be open to playing a constructive role in making that happen,” he said, quoted by Reuters.
Let’s see if anything comes out of this.
