World Leaders Gather In New York For An Expectedly Gloomy U.N. General Assembly | rssama.com

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Facing a swirl of conflicts and crises crossed a fragmented world, leaders attending this week’s yearly U.N. gathering are being challenged: Work together — not only connected front-burner issues but connected modernizing nan world institutions calved aft World War II truthful they tin tackle nan threats and problems of nan future.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued nan situation a twelvemonth agone aft sounding a world siren astir nan endurance of humanity and nan planet: Come to a “Summit of nan Future” and make a caller committedness to multilateralism – nan instauration of nan United Nations and galore different world bodies – and commencement fixing nan aging world architecture to meet nan quickly changing world.

The U.N. main told reporters past week that nan acme “was calved retired of a cold, difficult fact: world challenges are moving faster than our expertise to lick them.” He pointed to “out-of-control geopolitical divisions” and “runaway” conflicts, ambiance change, inequalities, indebtedness and caller technologies for illustration artificial intelligence which person nary guardrails.

The two-day acme started Sunday, 2 days earlier nan high-level gathering of world leaders originates astatine nan sprawling U.N. compound successful New York City.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during nan "Summit of nan Future" connected nan sidelines of nan U.N. General Assembly astatine nan U.N. Headquarters successful New York, September 22, 2024.

Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

The General Assembly approved nan summit’s main result archive — a 42-page “Pact of nan Future” — connected Sunday greeting pinch a bang of nan gavel by Assembly President Philémon nan signifying consensus, aft nan assemblage voted 143-7 pinch 15 abstentions against considering Russian-proposed amendments to importantly h2o it down.

The pact is simply a blueprint to reside world challenges from conflicts and ambiance alteration to artificial intelligence and reforming nan U.N. and world institutions. Its effect will dangle connected its implementation by nan assembly’s 193 personnel nations.

“Leaders must inquire themselves whether this will beryllium yet different gathering wherever they simply talk astir greater practice and consensus, aliases whether they will show nan imagination and condemnation to really forge it,” said Agnès Callamard, nan secretary-general of Amnesty International. “If they miss this opportunity, I shudder to deliberation of nan consequences. Our corporate early is astatine stake.”

This is nan UN’s biggest week of nan year

A female points to her ample dream necklace and "Bring Them Home Now" T-shirt while participating successful a rally extracurricular nan United Nations Headquarters successful New York City that calls connected nan assemblage to do much to merchandise Hamas' hostages up of nan General Assembly adjacent week connected September 20, 2024.

Alexi Rosenfeld via Getty Images

The acme is nan prelude to this year’s high-level meeting, held each September. More than 130 presidents, premier ministers and monarchs are slated to speak on pinch dozens of ministers, and nan issues from nan acme are expected to predominate their speeches and backstage meetings, particularly nan wars successful Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan and nan increasing anticipation of a wider Mideast war.

“There is going to beryllium a alternatively evident spread betwixt nan Summit of nan Future, pinch its attraction connected expanding world cooperation, and nan reality that nan U.N. is failing successful Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan,” said Richard Gowan, U.N. head for nan International Crisis Group. “Those 3 wars will beryllium apical topics of attraction for astir of nan week.”

One notable infinitesimal astatine Tuesday’s opening assembly meeting: U.S. President Joe Biden’s apt last awesome quality connected nan world stage, a level he has tread upon and reveled successful for decades.

At nan upcoming meetings, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters this week: “The astir susceptible astir nan world are counting connected america to make progress, to make change, to bring astir a consciousness of dream for them.”

To meet nan galore world challenges, she said, nan U.S. attraction astatine nan U.N. meetings will beryllium connected ending “the scourge of war.” Roughly 2 cardinal group unrecorded successful conflict-affected areas, she said.

Last September, nan warfare successful Ukraine and its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, took halfway shape astatine nan U.N. world gathering. But arsenic nan first day of Hamas’ deadly onslaught successful confederate Israel approaches connected Oct. 7, nan spotlight is definite to beryllium connected nan warfare successful Gaza and escalating unit crossed nan Israeli-Lebanon border, which is now threatening to dispersed to nan wider Middle East.

Iran supports some Hamas successful Gaza and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants. Its caller president, Masoud Pezeshkian, will reside world leaders connected Tuesday afternoon. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to speak Thursday greeting and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu connected Thursday afternoon.

Zelenskyy will get nan spotlight twice. He will speak Tuesday astatine a high-level gathering of nan U.N. Security Council — called by nan United States, France, Japan, Malta, South Korea and Britain — and will reside nan General Assembly connected Wednesday morning.

They’re trying to antagonistic ‘a world of grim statistics’

Tanja Fajon, lawman premier curate of Slovenia and curate of overseas and European affairs, speaks pinch Palestinian Ambassador to nan U.N. Riyad Mansour during a U.N. Security Council gathering connected nan Middle East, astatine U.N. Headquarters successful New York City connected Sept. 19, 2024.

Michael M. Santiago via Getty Images

Slovenia, which holds nan council’s rotating presidency this month, chose nan taxable “Leadership for Peace” for its high-level gathering Wednesday, challenging its 15 personnel nations to reside why nan U.N. assemblage charged pinch maintaining world bid and information is failing — and really it tin do better.

“The arena follows our study that we unrecorded successful a world of grim statistics, pinch nan highest number of ongoing conflicts, pinch grounds precocious casualties among civilians, among humanitarians, among aesculapian workers, among journalist,” Slovenian U.N. Ambassador Samuel Zbogar told reporters. He cited a record-high 100 cardinal group driven from their homes by conflict.

“The world is becoming little stable, little peaceful, and pinch erosion of nan respect for nan rules, it is sliding into nan authorities of disorder,” Zbogar said. “We person not seen this precocious request to rebuild spot to unafraid nan early ever before.”

A cardinal logic for nan Security Council’s dysfunction is nan heavy section among its 5 veto-wielding imperishable members. The United States, Israel’s closest ally, is simply a protagonist of Ukraine alongside Britain and France. Russia invaded Ukraine and has a subject and economical business pinch China, though Beijing reasserted its longstanding support for each country’s sovereignty without criticizing Russia successful a caller briefing insubstantial for nan U.N. meetings.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Britain’s caller premier minister, Keir Starmer, will beryllium astatine nan United Nations this week on pinch Biden. But Russian President Vladimir Putin and China’s President Xi Jinping are sending their overseas ministers instead. Neither Putin nor Xi attended past year, either.

Guterres, who will preside complete nan full matter this week, warned that nan world is seeing “a multiplication of conflicts and nan consciousness of impunity” — a scenery where, he said, “any state aliases immoderate subject entity, militias, whatever, consciousness that they tin do immoderate they want because thing will hap to them.”

“And nan truth that cipher takes moreover earnestly nan capacity of nan powers to lick problems connected nan ground,” he said, “makes nan level of impunity (on) an tremendous level.”

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Edith M. Lederer, main U.N. analogous for The Associated Press, has covered overseas affairs for much than 50 years.

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