United Nations

Estonian President Alar Karis says Russian fighter planes entering his country’s airspace is another sign that Russia is escalating its war on Ukraine. His comments come a day after US President Donald Trump said NATO countries should shoot down Russian aircraft that violate their airspace.

Picture the crowded sidewalks and standstill traffic of New York City. Pedestrians jostle past street vendors as they rush to their destinations. The wail of sirens mingles with the sudden screech of car horns.

Now add to the fray an influx of world leaders and diplomats, accompanied by gaggles of journalists, advocates and security officers.

Each year in September, the bustling east side of Midtown Manhattan becomes even busier as it hosts the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

New York briefly transforms into the centre of international politics as presidents, prime ministers and royals descend on the UN headquarters to speak at the opening debate for the latest UNGA session.

This year, the summit arrives amid heightened security concerns in the United States following the assassination of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk. It also comes at a time of growing global outrage at the horrors that Israel is inflicting on Gaza.

Traffic has been blocked in the eight city blocks flanking the UN complex, establishing a restricted zone that can only be accessed by authorised personnel.

Hundreds — if not thousands — of heavily armed local and federal law enforcement agents surround the area, ensuring that no one gets near the summit without prior approval.

Due to the restrictions, many local residents told Al Jazeera they feel a mix of apathy and annoyance towards the annual gathering, which has been informally dubbed the World Cup of Politics.

Ugur Dikici, who operates a fruit stand across from the UN, said it may seem cool to have leaders from across the world come to your neighbourhood. “But when you’re stuck in traffic for two hours, it’s not fun,” he told Al Jazeera.

Dikici added that the event also hurts his business; tourists and delegates don’t buy fruit and vegetables as much as locals, who may be deterred by the commotion.

However, he said having New York as a global platform is still worth it. “You can deal with three, four days once a year. It’s fine.”

‘International ideals’

Entering the UN headquarters during the general debate requires navigating through a maze of checkpoints.

Delegates, visitors, staff and journalists are distinguished by different badges that allow them access to certain areas — but not others.

Even within the UN complex, some buildings and floors have their own airport-like screenings for multiple layers of security.

The East River, which borders the four main UN buildings, has also not been spared.

Only police and US Coast Guard vessels, about a dozen of them, can be seen on the water at any point. No ferries, cruises or commercial ships are allowed.

Authorities have declared the stretch of the water a security zone that is blocked to most ships during the summit.

Despite the intricacy of the security arrangements, the event tends to go on smoothly every year.

The occasional hiccups do occur, however. On Monday evening, for example, the motorcade of US President Donald Trump blocked the path of his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, as he tried to reach France’s embassy.

Video captured the French leader gently haggling with a police officer to let him and his delegates pass. “Guess what? I am waiting in the street because everything is frozen for you,” Macron later told Trump in a cellphone call.

New York has been hosting the summit at the same spot for more than 70 years, and the city’s leaders take a lot of pride in it.

“The iconic UN sits near the East River [and] remains a symbol of not only peace but a symbol of hope,” New York Mayor Eric Adams said last week.

“And I’m proud to be the mayor of this city that would house this important conversation.”

But in his speech to the UNGA on Tuesday, Trump disparaged the international body, describing it as little more than a conveyor of “empty words”.

Dozens of protesters had gathered outside the event to denounce the US president. Paul Rabin, one of the demonstrators, said he hoped to show his support for the UN’s founding ideals — values he feels Trump is trampling.

“This is a city of people from all over the world,” he said of New York.

“The international ideals are in alignment with the ideals of New York. And we want to call out people who are against the values that the UN and the United States are really founded on.”

‘I lose business’

But Harry Khan, who owns a corner store nearby, was not as thrilled about the summit.

“When there is a road closure, I lose business. My regular customers, they avoid coming outside,” he told Al Jazeera.

And the influx of tourists does not offset the losses, according to Khan.

As mammoth as the UNGA is, its impact on New York is limited to the immediate neighbourhood outside the restricted area.

In the vast and densely populated city, signs of the UNGA start to dissipate within a few blocks from the UN complex.

With the world’s eyes on the summit, some of the city’s 8.5 million residents say they’re more worried about daily struggles. More than 18 percent of New York City’s population lives under the poverty line.

On Tuesday evening, a young woman grew visibly frustrated when she found out that her bus stop was barricaded within the security zone.

When asked how she feels about the UNGA being in New York, she replied: “Because it stops traffic, I don’t care for it. I can’t get to my bus to go home. Now, I’ve got to find another route.”

Kenyan President William Ruto told the UN General Assembly that Africa’s exclusion from permanent membership on the Security Council is unfair and undermines the UN’s credibility, arguing the continent bears the “heaviest cost of instability”.

The United Nations General Assembly’s 80th session was meant to be a sombre assessment of a world on fire. The Sustainable Development Goals are failing, wars rage on multiple continents and the planet itself is burning. Yet the most significant drama of the 80th session was not about any single crisis but a deeper, more fundamental schism that played out in the very language used within the hall. It seems that the UN is no longer a forum for managing a shared global order; it has become the arena where two irreconcilable visions of world order are fighting for supremacy.

On one side stands the traditional, albeit, weary mulitlateralist project. Its champions, exemplified by European leaders cautiously inching towards recognition of a Palestinian state, still operate on the premise that legitimacy is derived from international law and consensus. Theirs is a world of treaties, institutions and patient diplomacy. On the other side stands a resurgent sovereigntist assault, championed most vocally by President Donald Trump, who returned to the UN stage not to engage, but to dismantle. In a nearly hour-long speech Trump admonished the UN over what he views as its ineffectiveness, framing global cooperation not as a necessity, but as a folly. The 80th UNGA revealed that the transatlantic split is no longer a policy disagreement; it is a philosophical chasm over the soul of global governance.

The issue of Palestine serves as a perfect case study in this clash of legitimacies. The moves by a growing number of countries to recognize Palestine were calculated acts of multilateralism. They were an attempt to salvage the two-state solution, a cornerstone of UN resolutions for decades, by working within the established system. The recognition was a message: that statehood is not a prize to be won through force but a status conferred by the international community.

This logic is an anathema to the Trumpian worldview. From this perspective, such recognition is not diplomacy; it is a dangerous reward for adversaries. Trump framed it as a “reward for Hamas”, reducing a complex decades-long struggle for self-determination to a simplistic binary form of terrorism. The sovereigntist argument holds that these decisions are not the UN’s to make. Power, not consensus, is the ultimate arbiter. The conflict is no longer about land; it is about who gets to decide the rules of the game.

Nowhere is this divide more stark than on the existential threat of climate change. For the multilateralist project, the climate crisis is its ultimate validation. A warming planet is a problem that no single nation, no matter how powerful, can solve alone. It necessitates the very cooperation the UN was founded to foster.

Trump’s address systematically dismantled this premise. He pulled the rug out from under the entire premise by blasting climate change as “the greatest con job ever perpetuated on the world.” This is not merely a policy difference; it is a declaration that the central problem the UN is trying to solve is a fiction. If there is no global problem, there is no need for a global solution. The institution, in this view, becomes not just ineffective, but illegitimate.

The sovereigntist vision extends to a radical critique of domestic governance, further highlighting the divide. When Trump declared that some countries “are going to hell” over their immigration policies, he was doing more than critcizing a policy. He was asserting a model where nationa borders are absolute and the internal choices of sovereign nations, particularly those of his allies, are open for public condemnation if they deviate from his ideology. This creates a world not of mutual respect and non-interference, but of perpetual, transactional pressure.

The  consequence of this great unraveling is a world adrift. The UN was built on the fragile hope that great powers, despite their rivalries, would see a greater interest in maintaining a common system. That foundation is now cracked. We’re moving towards a multi-order world, where countries selectively engage with institutions, cherry-picking rules that suit them and ignoring those that don’t. The Global South watches this spectacle with a cynical detachment, caught between a multilateral system that has often failed them and a sovereigntist alternative that promises even greater volatility.

The 80th session offered no resolutions to this core conflict. Instead, it held up a mirror. The speeches, the sideline meetings, the starkly different vocabularies – all revealed an institution that can no longer paper over its divides. The question is no longer whether the UN can solve the world’s problems, but whether the world believes in the idea of the UN itself. As the great powers turn inward, the 80th General Assembly may be remembered not for what it achieved, but as the moment the post-war order finally conceded that it’s no longer governed by a shared vision, but by a deepening and potentially unbridgeable rift.

Syria’s al-Sharaa voices hope for deal, warns of regional risks due to Israeli attempts to fragment country.

Israel is close to striking a “de-escalation” agreement with Syria, after the latter’s President signalled that his country was “scared” of the former’s relentless attacks since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s rule last year.

United States Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack said on Tuesday that the agreement would see Israel stopping its attacks on its neighbour, while Syria will agree to not move any machinery or heavy equipment near the Israeli border.

Barrack said that both sides were negotiating “in good faith” on the agreement, which had been slated for completion this week, but had been slowed down by the Rosh Hashana holiday – the Jewish New Year – this week. The agreement would serve as first step towards an eventual security deal, he said.

Speaking shortly before Barrack, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose forces toppled longtime autocrat ruler al-Assad back in December, voiced hope for a security deal, pointing out that his country had not created problems with Israel.

“We are scared of Israel, not the other way around,” he told an event of the Middle East Institute in New York.

“There are multiple risks with Israel stalling on the negotiations and insisting on violating our airspace and incursions into our territory,” he said.

“Jordan is under pressure, and any talk of partitioning Syria will hurt Iraq, will hurt Turkiye. That will take us all back to square one,” he added.

Al-Sharaa will be the first Syria leader to address the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Wednesday in six decades.

Risks of fragmentation

Israel and Syria have been Middle East adversaries for decades, the enmity between the pair heightening during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and Israel’s occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights.

Since Assad’s ouster, Israel has hobbled Syria’s attempts to get back on a stable footing, trashing a 1974 ceasefire agreement between the two states, striking Syrian military assets and sending troops to within 20 km (12 miles) of Damascus.

Al-Sharaa said last week that Israel had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Syria and conducted more than 400 ground incursions.

Israel has alternately claimed that its strikes on Syria are aimed at preventing terrorism or protecting the country’s Druze minority, notably in the southern area of Suwayda where sectarian violence erupted in June. But Israel has brazenly bombed central Damascus as well.

Critics charge that Israel is seeking to fragment the country in a bid to keep it weak and exert its own dominance over the region.

Speaking on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, al-Sharaa renewed his call to the US to formally lift sanctions imposed on his country to enable it to rebuild and held talks this week with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Israel has been lobbying US lawmakers and policymakers at the State Department for months to keep sanctions in place.

In a historical twist of fate for the ages, al-Sharaa sat down for interview this week, whilst in New York for the UNGA, with former US General David Petraeus, who once arrested the then rebel righter and led American forces during the invasion of Iraq, later becoming the director of the CIA.

Israeli forces killed at least 36 Palestinians on Tuesday as they pounded Gaza from the air and ground, as world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York demanded an end to the two-year war.

Residential buildings continue to be flattened as Israel presses ahead with its plan to seize the enclave’s largest city.

Satellite imagery analysed by Al Jazeera shows Israeli army vehicles tightening a stranglehold around Gaza City, surrounding it from several directions. Footage verified by Al Jazeera shows tanks pushing into the Nassr neighbourhood, barely a kilometre from al-Shifa Hospital.

This destruction forms part of a pattern that a UN commission says amounts to genocide.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Tuesday warned that Israel’s military actions are “inflicting terror on the Palestinian population of Gaza City and forcing tens of thousands to flee”.

The suffering of Palestinians has drawn the attention of the global leaders, who have used the UNGA platform to demand a ceasefire in Gaza.

Addressing the UNGA, US President Donald Trump said that the Gaza war should stop “immediately” but dismissed the recognition of a Palestinian state by several Western countries, calling it a “reward” for Hamas.

The US president met leaders from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Turkiye, Indonesia and Pakistan on the sidelines of the UNGA. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said the meeting was “very fruitful,” adding that a joint declaration from the meeting would be published.

‘Stuck under the rubble’

Israeli strikes have hit civilians across Gaza. One man was killed and others wounded in the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood, while another strike hit Palestinians queueing for water in Gaza City’s Daraj neighbourhood, sources told Al Jazeera.

Medical infrastructure is also being dismantled. Israeli shelling destroyed the main medical centre in Gaza City, injuring at least two medical workers, according to the Palestinian Medical Relief Society.

The charity said that troops prevented the evacuation of equipment and supplies, even as the facility served the wounded, cancer patients and blood donors. Other clinics in Tal al-Hawa and the Shati refugee camp have also been destroyed or besieged.

Hind Khoudary, reporting for Al Jazeera from az-Zawayda, described the devastation: “The situation continues to deteriorate, especially in the heart of Gaza City, where Israeli forces have been using artillery shelling and quadcopters to push more Palestinians to evacuate to the south and central areas.

“There have been endless appeals from Palestinian families saying their relatives are stuck under the rubble, but no one can reach them.”

No safe zones

Tens of thousands of Palestinians fleeing Gaza City have ended up in the central and southern areas of the enclave, which are under constant bombardment. The Israeli-designated “safe zone” of al-Mawasi has itself been attacked repeatedly, with health officials warning that it lacks the basic necessities of life, including water, food [and] health services, while disease spreads through overcrowded camps.

Experts say the forced movement is itself part of the machinery of genocide: driving families into displacement under fire and stripping them of shelter, food and dignity.

At Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, doctors report that three Palestinians were shot and killed by Israeli forces near the supposed safe zone further south. Three children died from malnutrition in southern Gaza, according to hospital sources.

In August, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification declared that famine was under way in northern Gaza and would spread south. Gaza’s Ministry of Health warns that hospitals are now “entering an extremely dangerous phase” due to fuel shortages.

This collapse of health services and the deliberate obstruction of food and fuel deliveries has led to UN experts accusing Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war.

West Bank under attack

While global attention remains fixed on the destruction in Gaza, events in the occupied West Bank may carry even deeper implications for the future of the conflict.

Israel has threatened to accelerate annexation plans in the West Bank in the wake of recognition of Palestinian statehood by several Western countries, including France and the United Kingdom.

On the ground, violence has intensified. Armed settlers shot dead Saeed Murad al-Nasan in the village of al-Mughayyir, north of Ramallah, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.

Israeli forces raided multiple towns around Nablus and ordered the indefinite closure of the King Hussein (Allenby) Bridge, the only gateway for goods and people between the West Bank and Jordan.

The tightening of settlements, killings and closure of borders are not isolated incidents. Together, they form part of what a UN report on Tuesday described as a systematic effort to secure permanent Israeli control over Gaza and entrench a Jewish majority in the West Bank.

It comes after a UN commission concluded last week that Israel’s policies – forced displacement, denial of return, destruction of infrastructure and the deliberate use of starvation as a weapon – meet the legal definition of genocide.

“I agree with President Donald Trump.” Polish President Karol Nawrocki told the UN General Assembly that an “ideological madness” had taken over Europe in recent years, leading to “bad decisions on migration” and a “green craziness.”

Jordan’s King Abdullah II told the 80th United Nations General Assembly that Israel is “burying the very idea of a Palestinian state,” while blasting decades of international inaction. He urged recognition of Palestinian statehood as “an indisputable right, not a reward.”

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.

US President Donald Trump accused the UN of aiding uncontrolled migration and told the General Assembly a ‘UN-funded assault’ was taking place against Western countries and their borders.

Several Western nations, including the UK, Australia, and Canada, have formally recognised Palestine, drawing praise from Palestinians and outrage from the Israeli government, which insists it will never allow a Palestinian state.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Australia’s formally recognition of the State of Palestine, in a coordinated move with the UK and Canada, in an effort to revive a two-state solution. Albanese made the declaration from New York where he’ll be attending the UN General Assembly this week.

UN General Assembly votes 145-5, allowing President Mahmoud Abbas to address the UNGA next week by video after the US denied him a visa.

The United Nations General Assembly has voted to allow Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to address its annual gathering of world leaders next week by video link after the United States refused to grant him a visa to travel to New York in person.

“The State of Palestine may submit a prerecorded statement of its President, which will be played in the General Assembly Hall,” said the resolution, which passed on Friday with 145 votes in favour, five opposed, and six abstentions.

The move comes weeks after the Palestinian Authority urged Washington to reinstate Abbas’s visa so that he could travel to the United States to lead the Palestinian delegation and address the UNGA in person.

Abbas was among 80 Palestinian officials whose visas were revoked by the US State Department, citing national security concerns.

The General Assembly speeches are scheduled to begin on Tuesday after leaders gather on Monday for a summit — hosted by France and Saudi Arabia — that aims to build momentum towards a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.

“Gaza is issue number one at the UN General Assembly,” Al Jazeera’s Diplomatic Editor James Bays reported from New York.

“All leaders come here and give their speeches. But on this occasion … Mahmoud Abbas has been denied a visa … which is very unusual.”

Bays said the overwhelming vote in favour of Abbas addressing the UNGA by video was a “snapshot of international opinion on Palestine and Gaza”, and that it showed “very few countries that are backing the side of Israel and the US”.

The Trump administration’s decision has received widespread criticism, with the UN asserting that it violates the Host Country Agreement, under which the US is obligated to permit heads of state and government to travel to New York for annual meetings and diplomatic business.

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

In response to Israel’s devastating attacks over the past nearly two years, an increasing number of countries, mainly in Europe, have announced intentions to back Palestinian statehood at the UN this September.

According to local health officials, Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 65,141 people and wounded 165,925 since October 2023, with thousands more believed to be buried in the rubble.

Four countries vote to stop sanctions from being reintroduced, while nine vote against sanctions relief.

The United Nations Security Council has voted not to permanently lift economic sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme, delivering a major economic blow that Tehran claims is “politically biased”.

A resolution on Friday to block the sanctions fell in the Security Council by a vote of four to nine, meaning European sanctions will return by September 28 if no significant deal is reached beforehand.

Russia, China, Pakistan and Algeria voted to stop the sanctions from being reintroduced, while nine UNSC members voted against sanctions relief. Two countries abstained.

The vote follows a 30-day process launched in late August by Britain, France and Germany – known as the E3 – to reinstate sanctions unless Tehran meets their demands.

Iran says Europeans ‘misusing JCPOA mechanism’

Iranian officials have accused the European trio of abusing the dispute mechanism contained in the 2015 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which allows for the application of sanctions under a “snapback mechanism”.

“What Europeans are doing is politically biased and politically motivated … They are wrong on different levels by trying to misuse the mechanism embedded in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA),” Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh said.

The Europeans offered to delay the snapback for up to six months if Iran restored access for UN nuclear inspectors and engaged in talks with the US.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi claimed that Tehran had presented a “reasonable and actionable plan” and insisted Iran remains committed to the NPT.

But the E3 accuse Tehran of breaching their nuclear commitments, including by building up a uranium stockpile of more than 40 times the level permitted under the JCPOA. The UN’s nuclear watchdog board also ruled back in June that Iran was not respecting international nuclear safeguards.

‘Clock is ticking for high-level diplomacy’

The UNSC vote allowing sanctions to snap back is not the complete “end of negotiations,” as the parties have just over a week to come up with a last-ditch deal, said Al Jazeera’s Diplomatic Editor James Bays, reporting from the UN.

“It’s the week where world leaders are all here in New York for the high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly, so it sets the stage for high-level diplomacy between Iran and particularly the three European countries,” said Bays. But “we’re reaching the end of this high-stakes diplomacy, and the clock really is ticking.”

Under the JCPOA – signed by Iran, the United States, China, Russia and the EU – Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief. But the agreement unravelled in 2018 after then-US President Donald Trump pulled out and reimposed unilateral sanctions.

Tensions escalated further earlier this summer, when Israel launched a 12-day war on Iran, with Israeli and US forces striking several nuclear facilities.

Iran has repeatedly denied pursuing nuclear weapons but affirmed its right to peacefully pursue nuclear energy.

Report says ethnic violence has risen as the civil war passed two-year anniversary in the first half of 2025.

Civilians are bearing the brunt as Sudan‘s vicious civil war extends and intensifies, the United Nations has warned.

The UN’s Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said in a report released on Friday that civilian deaths and ethnic violence rose significantly as the war passed its two-year anniversary during the first half of 2025. The same day, reports said that dozens were killed by paramilitaries in an attack on a mosque in Darfur.

The rate of civilian deaths across Sudan has increased, the report says, with 3,384 civilians dying in the first six months of the year, a figure equalling 80 percent of the 4,238 civilian deaths throughout the whole of 2024.

“Sudan’s conflict is a forgotten one, and I hope that my office’s report puts the spotlight on this disastrous situation where atrocity crimes, including war crimes, are being committed,” OHCHR chief Volker Turk said in a statement.

#Sudan crisis deepens amid rising civilian casualties, worsening ethnic violence & humanitarian situation, finds @UNHumanRights report.

States must face grim reality of what has now evolved into a wider protection crisis & use their influence to end this conflict.

Many more… pic.twitter.com/c7OOcLUgdH

— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) September 19, 2025

“Several trends remained consistent during the first half of 2025: a continued pervasiveness of sexual violence, indiscriminate attacks, and the widespread use of retaliatory violence against civilians, particularly on an ethnic basis, targeting individuals accused of ‘collaboration’ with opposing parties,” said the report.

New trends include the use of drones, including in attacks on civilian sites and in Sudan’s north and east, which until now have been largely spared by the war, it said.

“The increasing ethnicisation of the conflict, which builds on longstanding discrimination and inequalities, poses grave risks for longer-term stability and social cohesion within the country,” said Turk.

“Many more lives will be lost without urgent action to protect civilians and without the rapid and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid.”

Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a brutal war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The conflict has killed tens of thousands and displaced some 12 million people. The UN has described it as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with famine prevalent in parts of Darfur and southern Sudan.

The war has, in effect, split the country, with the army holding the north, east and centre, while the RSF dominates parts of the south and nearly all of the western Darfur region.

Efforts by the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates to broker a ceasefire between the warring parties have so far failed.

The RSF killed 43 civilians in a drone strike on a mosque early on Friday in the besieged city of el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, the Sudan Doctors’ Network NGO said in a social media post.

The NGO labelled the attack a “heinous crime” against unarmed civilians that showed the group’s “blatant disregard for humanitarian and religious values and international law”.

The Resistance Committees in el-Fasher, a group comprised of local citizens from the community that includes human rights activists, who track abuses, posted a video reportedly showing parts of the mosque reduced to rubble with several bodies scattered on the site, now filled with debris.

The same group reported on Thursday that the RSF had targeted several unarmed civilians, including women and older adults, in displacement shelters in the city.

A day earlier, it said that heavy artillery by the RSF had continuously targeted residential neighbourhoods.

In April last year, I wrote that, given the genocide it is committing in Gaza, its violent occupation of the West Bank, numerous attacks on its neighbours, and apparent disregard for international and human rights law, it was time for the international community to declare Israel a rogue state. As if we hadn’t received enough confirmation of its rogue status since then, on September 9, Israel went ahead and carried out a strike on Qatar, a key mediator in negotiations between Hamas and Israel. This, while Gaza’s devastation deepens by the day.

The last remaining high rises in Gaza City are now being flattened, and hundreds of thousands of people who had already been displaced multiple times are being pushed towards the south of the enclave. Israel claims the south is a “humanitarian zone”, but we know well that there is nowhere in Gaza where Palestinians are safe.

So, in the midst of all this, it feels futile to celebrate the United Nations General Assembly vote where 142 member states backed “tangible, timebound, and irreversible steps” towards a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. The same resolution, rejected by just 12 states including Israel and the United States, also called on Hamas to free all hostages, end its rule in Gaza, and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority, in line with the objective of establishing a sovereign and independent Palestinian state.

Gaza is still smouldering, and Palestinian communities are being systematically erased in the occupied West Bank. So how does it make sense to talk about a Palestinian state? Who, or what, would such a state serve?

Before this vote, the vast majority of countries in the world had already recognised the State of Palestine. Those missing from this map of recognition were primarily states in the Global North.

Through the UN General Assembly vote, France, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Malta, Belgium, Canada, and Australia have now signalled their support for Palestinian statehood, aligning themselves with the global majority. But let us be clear: these countries have no claim to the moral high ground.

We should remember that they waited through two years of Israeli genocide, which has killed at least 65,000 Palestinians, before voting in favour of a Palestinian state. They were similarly oblivious to the Palestinian right to self-determination during the years of Israeli and Egyptian-imposed military siege in Gaza before October 7, 2023. They did nothing to quell the ever-expanding illegal settlement movement in the occupied West Bank or the sharp increase in settler violence. In fact, they have done nothing to support the Palestinian right to self-determination since 1948.

So, why should this time be any different?

In fact, it is not different at all. As a scholar of international law, Noura Erakat recently told Al Jazeera, “It is way too little, far too late.” And these declarations are only meant to distract from the fact that many of these countries have financially and militarily enabled Israel to carry out its genocide.

The proof is in the pudding: the Palestinian state that is on offer. And what is clear is that Palestinian rights are not a priority.

A few weeks before, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that the United Kingdom would recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September 2025 unless Israel took “substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, agree to a ceasefire and commit to a long-term sustainable peace, reviving the prospect of a two-state solution.” There was no mention of Palestinians’ inalienable right to self-determination or of the legitimacy of the Palestinian national struggle. Rather, it was framed as a punishment for Israel. Does this mean that if Israel had stopped the genocide and paid lip service to the (already dead) two-state solution, Britain would have voted differently?

Canada’s promise of recognition came with a long list of caveats. Notably, on the Government of Canada’s website, in the items that make up its “policy on key issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”, the first commitment is “support for Israel and its security”.

It adds that Israel has the “right under international law to take the necessary measures, in accordance with human rights and international humanitarian law, to protect the security of its citizens from attacks by terrorist groups.” But what if Israel is already in violation of international law – as it is right now? Will Canada still stand by Israel and its security?

After reaffirming its support for Israel, Canada then declares support for the Palestinians’ “right to self-determination” and “a sovereign, independent, viable, democratic, and territorially contiguous Palestinian state”. But this comes with strings attached, including demands for governance reforms in the Palestinian Authority, the demilitarisation of the Palestinian state, and elections in 2026, “in which Hamas can play no part”.

Australia’s promise of recognition was similarly predicated on the Palestinian Authority pursuing certain reforms, including the termination of prisoner payments, schooling reform, and demilitarisation. It also demanded that Hamas “end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons”.

The joint statement by Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese added: “There is much more work to do in building the Palestinian state. We will work with partners on a credible peace plan that establishes governance and security arrangements for Palestine and ensures the security of Israel.” But what of the security of Palestinians? Will Australia take any measures to protect them from Israel’s mass extermination? Or are Palestinians simply meant to work on building a state that Western powers can tolerate, while hoping that the Israeli government will eventually grow tired of its genocidal campaign?

The unbearable tragedy of it all is that we have already seen what happens when a peace process prioritises Israel’s right to security over Palestinians’ right to self-determination. It was called the Oslo Accords, where a genuine guarantee of a Palestinian state was never on the table.

In his essay The Morning After, Edward Said wrote of the vulgarity of the ceremonial way the Accords were signed at the White House and the diminutive manner in which Yasser Arafat offered thanks. Said rued that the Oslo Accords were not a path to statehood. Rather, they symbolised the “astonishing proportions of the Palestinian capitulation”.

It resulted in a Palestinian Authority — yes, the same Palestinian Authority that Western leaders have hedged their bets on — that had all the bells and whistles of a state. But the real state never arrived. With complete impunity, Israel continued its efforts to erase Palestinians. And the Palestinian Authority became an extension of the settler-colonial project, collaborating with Israeli forces to actively undermine the Palestinian national movement, all in the name of Israel’s security.

So, if Western leaders are sincere about “solving” the crisis, the only good solution is the one that places Palestinian rights on centre stage and involves some mechanism of political leverage and censure that is able to curb Israel’s rogue-like conduct. Without it, any recognition of Palestinian statehood is an empty performance, and the Israeli campaign of genocide and erasure is bound to continue with complete impunity.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Last year’s record heat led to prolonged droughts and extreme floods across the globe.

Climate change is making the Earth’s water cycle increasingly erratic, resulting in extreme swings between deluge and drought across the world, the United Nations has warned.

The UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in a report released on Thursday that the global water cycle was becoming ever more unpredictable, with shrinking glaciers, droughts, unbalanced river basins and severe floods wreaking havoc.

“The world’s water resources are under growing pressure and, at the same time, more extreme water-related hazards are having an increasing impact on lives and livelihoods,” WMO chief Celeste Saulo said in a statement accompanying the release of the annual State of Global Water Resources report.

The international group of scientists assessed freshwater availability and water storage across the world, including lakes, river flow, groundwater, soil moisture, snow cover and ice melt.

Last year was the hottest on record, leading to prolonged droughts in northern parts of South America, the Amazon Basin and Southern Africa.

Parts of Central Africa, Europe and Asia, meanwhile, were dealing with wetter weather than usual, being hit with devastating floods or deadly storms, said the report.

At a global level, WMO said, 2024 was the sixth consecutive year where there had been a “clear imbalance” in the world’s river basins.

“Two-thirds have too much or too little water – reflecting the increasingly erratic hydrological cycle,” it said.

While the world has natural cycles of climate variability from year to year, long-term trends outlined in the report indicate that the water cycle, at a global scale, is accelerating.

Stefan Uhlenbrook, WMO director of hydrology in the water and cryosphere division, said scientists feel it is “increasingly difficult to predict”.

“It’s more erratic, so either too much or too low on average flow per year,” he said.

As global warming drives higher global temperatures, the atmosphere can hold more water, leading either to longer dry periods or more intense rainfall.

Uhlenbrook said: “The climate changing is everything changing, and that has an impact on the water cycle dynamics.”

The WMO also flagged how the water quality in vital lakes was declining due to warmer weather, and glaciers shrank across all regions for the third year in a row.

The meltwater had added about 1.2mm to the global sea level in a single year, contributing to flooding risk for hundreds of millions of people living in coastal zones, the report warned.

The WMO called for more monitoring and data sharing across the board.

“Understanding and quantifying water resources and hydrological extremes … is critical for managing risks,” the report said, flagging the dangers of droughts, floods and glacier loss.

Al Jazeera’s James Bays challenged UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres about why he has not referred to Israel’s war on Gaza as a genocide. On Tuesday a UN commission of inquiry concluded Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.