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

Highlights:

• Trump returns as UN faces financial, political pressure
• AI joins wars as top concern for world leaders
• Xi bypasses UN General Assembly for Trump meeting
• Search begins for successor to UN chief Guterres

World leaders gather in New York this week for the UN General Assembly, bracing for President Donald Trump's return to the rostrum for a second year running, with talks centring on the widening conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine and the risks of artificial intelligence.

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UN itself struggling to remain relevant and weathering attacks from Trump, who has slashed America's contributions and withdrawn from dozens of UN bodies.

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

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

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

More than a year into Trump's second term, "we would no longer say that the UN is in freefall, but we would say that it's stuck in an open-ended crisis," said Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group.

"The UN may not be in emergency care like it was last year, but it seems to be trapped in a trauma centre for the foreseeable future," Gowan said.

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

Growing AI risks

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

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

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

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

Middle East escalation

The Middle East will again be a focus of discussions, as the US-Israeli war on Iran continues to drive global inflation and destabilise the region. Recent gains by Houthi militants threaten shipping in the vital Bab el-Mandeb Strait and could further spike energy prices.

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

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

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

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – wanted by the International Criminal Court over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza that Israel denies – is to speak on Thursday.

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

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

Ukraine, food security

Also on the agenda is Russia's more than four-year-old war in Ukraine.

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

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

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

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

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