UNGA

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told the UN General Assembly that Palestinians are ready for peace if only Israel would allow it. His address, delivered via video, accused the “extremist Israeli government” of crimes against humanity and made the case for his government’s control of Gaza.

Haiti’s transitional leader Laurent Saint-Cyr told the 80th UNGA Haiti faces a “modern-day Guernica,” with rampant killings, rapes, and mass hunger. He urged urgent, large-scale international action to defend democracy, protect children, and secure Haiti’s right to peace.

United States President Donald Trump has told the United Nations General Assembly that Israel’s war on Gaza must stop immediately as he called the recent recognition of Palestinian statehood by several Western countries a “reward” for Hamas.

“We have to stop the war in Gaza immediately,” Trump told world leaders in New York on Tuesday, adding that he has been “deeply engaged” in trying to secure a ceasefire.

He reiterated his call for the captives held in Gaza to be returned home. “We have to get it done. We have to negotiate peace. We have to get the hostages back. We want all 20 back,” he said, referring to the 20 of the 48 remaining captives still believed to be alive.

Those who support peace should be united in demanding the release of the captives, he told the leaders gathered for the General Assembly.

“As if to encourage continued conflict, some of this body is seeking to unilaterally recognise the Palestinian state. The rewards would be too great for Hamas terrorists, for their atrocities,” he said.

In contrast, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at a meeting on Sunday at the UN aimed at reviving the two-state solution that statehood for Palestinians “is a right, not a reward”.

Gaza truce offers

Trump called for an end to the war in Gaza, but had little criticism for Israel, instead blaming breakdowns in negotiations on Hamas. He insisted that Hamas, the Palestinian group that governed Gaza, “has repeatedly rejected reasonable offers to make peace”.

On the other side of the talks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has continually been accused of stalling the ceasefire negotiations since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023.

Israel targeted Hamas leaders in the Qatari capital, Doha, this month as the Palestinian leaders were meeting to discuss the latest truce proposal put forth by the US.

The Israeli prime minister broke the last ceasefire with Hamas in mid-March and imposed a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, triggering famine and starvation deaths.

Hamas said it is ready for a truce that will lead to the release of captives and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and a withdrawal of the Israeli army from Gaza, but Netanyahu has refused to commit to a full withdrawal. This month, Netanyahu decided to seize Gaza City, launching a ground invasion that has killed hundreds of Palestinians and displaced thousands.

More than 65,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its war. The US has been heavily criticised for continuing to arm Israel in a war that a UN commission described as amounting to genocide.

Trump also dedicated some of his speech to the General Assembly to Iran, describing Tehran as the “world’s number one sponsor of terror”. He promised Iran would “never possess a nuclear weapon”.

“Three months ago in Operation Midnight Hammer, seven American B-2 bombers dropped 30,000lb [13,600kg] each bombs on Iran’s key nuclear facilities, totally obliterating everything. No other country on Earth could have done what we did,” Trump said.

While the US president claimed the operation demolished Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity, a US defence assessment later suggested the strike only delayed Iran’s nuclear progress by several months.

‘Nobel Peace Prize’

The US president delivered his remarks minutes after Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had spoken, denouncing authoritarianism, environmental destruction and inequality, a contrast in tone to Trump’s focus on unilateral strength, nationalism and grievances.

Trump began his speech by taking aim at the teleprompter and a broken elevator he said he encountered at the UN headquarters before moving on to paint his administration as an economic success story.

At several points, Trump returned to his record on foreign policy, claiming to have brought an end to “seven different wars” and suggesting his achievements warranted the Nobel Peace Prize. “Everyone says I should get a Nobel Peace Prize for these achievements,” he said before adding that he did not care about awards, only “saving lives”.

Taking a dig at the UN, Trump said the world body was not coming close to living up to its potential. “I had to end wars instead of the United Nations,” he said.

As the Ukraine conflict rumbles on, Trump argued the war would “never have started if I was president”. He described his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin as “a good one” but said Moscow’s invasion is “not making Russia look good”.

He criticised Europe for continuing to buy Russian oil and gas despite sanctions, calling the practice “embarrassing”, and he singled out China and India as “primary funders” of Russia’s war effort.

“Everyone thought Russia would win in three days, but it didn’t,” Trump said while urging European Union nations to impose tariffs on Moscow.

Attacks on immigration and the UN

As the UN grapples with what experts describe as one of the most volatile periods in its 80-year history, Trump used the platform to attack the institution itself, accusing the body of “funding an assault on Western countries and their borders”. He claimed the organisation was helping “illegal aliens” enter the US by providing food, shelter, transportation and “debit cards”.

The International Organization for Migration, a UN agency, does provide assistance through disbursement cards and transport programmes but in coordination with governments – not to facilitate irregular border crossings.

On Europe, Trump warned of what he called an “invasion” of migrants and took aim at London Mayor Sadiq Khan, falsely claiming the Muslim politician wants to impose Islamic law.

The US president characterised migration and renewable energy as the biggest threat to the “free world”. He said some countries are “going to hell” over their border policies, while calling climate change “the greatest con job”.

“In closing, I just want to repeat that immigration and the high cost of so-called green renewable energy is destroying a large part of the free world and a large part of our planet,” he said.

He also renewed attacks on climate policies and accused Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of aiding drug smuggling.

Later on Tuesday, Trump is scheduled to meet Guterres as well as leaders from Ukraine, Argentina, the EU, and a group of Middle Eastern and Asian states. He will host a reception for more than 100 world leaders before returning to Washington, DC.

The last Syrian president to address the UN General Assembly spoke at the gathering in 1967.

Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa has arrived in New York for the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), becoming the first Syrian head of state to attend the annual gathering in almost six decades.

The last Syrian leader to attend the UNGA was President Nureddin al-Atassi, who ruled before the al-Assad family came to power in 1971 and maintained its rule until al-Sharaa toppled Bashar al-Assad’s government in December.

Al-Sharaa arrived in New York on Sunday, leading a large delegation of Syrian officials, in what state media described as a “landmark trip”.

The symbolism of the visit was also significant because it is the latest milestone in the normalisation of al-Sharaa and his government, who seized power in the country in a lightning offensive after spending more than a decade as a rebel fighter in northern Syria.

Al-Sharaa had a meeting with United States President Donald Trump in May, the first such encounter between a Syrian president and a US president in 25 years, at a summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council, alongside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. At the meeting, Trump said the US would drop all sanctions on Syria, which he subsequently did, and added that Washington was “exploring normalising relations with Syria’s new government”.

Al-Sharaa’s fledgling government has been contending with internal strife, notably an eruption of violence in the southern area of Suwayda in June, as well repeated Israeli attacks and military incursions into Syrian territory despite talks between the two nations.

Syria has accused Israel of violating the 1974 Disengagement Agreement that followed their 1973 war, by establishing intelligence facilities and military posts in demilitarised areas to advance its “expansionist and partition plans”.

In an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation, al-Sharaa said “President Trump took a big step towards Syria by lifting the sanctions with a quick, courageous and historic decision.

“He recognized that Syria should be safe, stable and unified. This is in the greatest interest of all the countries in the world, not just Syria,” he added, saying he hoped to have another meeting with Trump while in the US.

“We need to discuss a great many issues and mutual interests between Syria and the USA. We must restore relations in a good and direct way.”

At the end of June, Trump signed an executive order “terminating” most remaining sanctions on Syria, which was welcomed in Damascus as unlocking “long-awaited reconstruction and development” funds.

After arriving in the US, al-Sharaa met members of the Syrian community.

Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani also raised the country’s new flag over the Washington embassy.

في لحظة تاريخية، وزير الخارجية والمغتربين السيد أسعد حسن الشيباني يرفع علم الجمهورية العربية السورية فوق مبنى السفارة السورية في العاصمة الأميركية واشنطن. pic.twitter.com/PWyUEGSIBK

— وزارة الخارجية والمغتربين السورية (@syrianmofaex) September 19, 2025

Translation: In a historic moment, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Mr Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani, raises the flag of the Syrian Arab Republic above the building of the Syrian embassy in the US capital, Washington.

The United Nations General Assembly has endorsed a resolution reviving a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine. It also calls for Hamas to end its rule in Gaza. Israel and the United States were among the 10 members who voted against it.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s office has urged the United States to reverse a decision to revoke the Palestinian leader’s visa, just weeks before he was set to attend the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.

The Palestinian presidency expressed “astonishment” at Washington’s decision on Friday to rescind the visas for Abbas and 80 other Palestinian officials before next month’s high-level meetings at UN headquarters.

Abbas has addressed the General Assembly for many years and generally leads the Palestinian delegation.

“We call upon the American administration to reverse its decision,” Abbas’s spokesperson spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh told The Associated Press on Saturday, warning that the move “will only increase tension and escalation”.

“We have been in contact since yesterday with Arab and foreign countries, especially those directly concerned with this issue. This effort will continue around the clock,” Abu Rudeineh said.

The spokesperson also urged other countries to put pressure on US President Donald Trump’s administration to reverse its decision, including most notably those that have organised a high-level conference about reviving the two-state solution.

Set for September 22, the conference is being co-hosted by France and Saudi Arabia.

‘Ideologically driven’

The Trump administration’s visa curbs come amid growing condemnation of Israel’s devastating war on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and a wave of Israeli settler and military violence in the occupied West Bank.

The deadly attacks have prompted a growing number of countries to announce plans to recognise an independent Palestinian state at the UN in September.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio justified the revocations on Friday by accusing the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) of “not complying with their commitments” and “undermining the prospects for peace”.

Rubio also accused the PA of taking part in “lawfare campaigns”, including appeals to the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court to hold Israeli accountable for abuses in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

But Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy, a US-based think tank, accused the Trump administration is “clearly violating diplomatic protocol” in its decision to revoke the visas.

As a host state, the US is meant to grant visas to UN member-state representatives and officials to visit the international body’s headquarters in New York City.

“What’s going on here is clearly ideologically driven,” Duss told Al Jazeera.

“There are people inside the Trump administration who are working closely with the right-wing Israeli government and their goal is to simply remove the Palestinian liberation movement from the international agenda,” he said.

“They do not recognise the Palestinian peoples’ right to state, and they’re both trying to prevent that on the ground in Palestine and now they’re trying to remove them from the international agenda in New York.”

European criticism

Meanwhile, the European Union’s foreign policy chief said the bloc is calling on Washington to reconsider its visa denials.

“In the light of the existing agreements between the UN and its host state, we all urge for this decision to be reconsidered,” Kaja Kallas said on Saturday following a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Copenhagen.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot also said the General Assembly “cannot suffer any restrictions on access”.

“The United Nations headquarters is a place of neutrality, a sanctuary dedicated to peace, where conflicts are resolved,” Barrot said.

Meanwhile, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he spoke with Abbas on Saturday to express his “firm support” after the “unjust” visa revocations.

“Palestine has the right to make its voice heard at the United Nations and in all international forums,” Sanchez wrote in a post on social media.