Today at the UN
• What we’re watching: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will address global leaders during today’s morning session of the United Nations General Assembly. Abbas’ remarks will be via video after being denied a visa by the Trump administration.
• Against backdrop of war: Their speeches come as nearly three years have passed since the October 7, 2023 terror attacks and Israel’s subsequent war against Hamas in Gaza, leading to thousands of deaths and regional instability.
• What else has happened: In his UNGA address yesterday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran will not bend to US President Donald Trump and asserted Iranians have been “the victims of terrorism.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Vladimir Putin “patient zero” in his speech, saying the Russian leader spreads war and instability. Meanwhile, Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez said her country will hold elections and transition to a full democracy, but didn’t specify when.
How the feud between Netanyahu and Mamdani escalated this week
The feud between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has flared up once again.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu released a video on social media accusing Mamdani of supporting Hamas and “inciting riots against New York Jews.” Netanyahu said that he would come to the UN General Assembly “to tell the truth about our heroic soldiers, and I’m going to tell the truth about you.” Netanyahu has already used Mamdani as part of his electoral campaign on a billboard that said, “They want Netanyahu to lose. Don’t let them win.”
Mamdani disputed accusations made in the video, saying, “We all know that what the prime minister has said in that video is not true.”
“What we do know to actually be the truth when it comes to the prime minister is that he is the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. And as the prime minister, is the architect of a horrific genocide against Palestinians,” Mamdani said during a news conference today.
One day earlier, Mamdani doubled down on his criticism of Netanyahu, calling him a war criminal, even as he acknowledged he did not have the authority to arrest the Israeli leader while he is in New York, something he had promised to do during his mayoral campaign. The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders in 2024, but the US is not a member of the court and had made clear it will not arrest Netanyahu.
Netanyahu and Mamdani have had a long-running and very public rivalry. Netanyahu’s arrival in New York for his UN General Assembly speech is expected to draw protests.
CNN’s Maureen Chowdhury and Gloria Pazmino contributed to this report.
Zelensky causes stir in New York, saying his next trip to Moscow will be "on a missile”
An exchange between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a Russian state journalist on the streets of New York yesterday has been making the rounds on social media.
In the clip, the Russian reporter repeatedly asks Zelensky when he will be going to Moscow next as he makes his way through the streets of New York, flanked by security personnel. The Ukrainian president eventually quips “on a missile” as a reply.
The response quickly caught the attention of Russian media and was addressed by Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov during his daily briefing on Thursday. When asked by a reporter how he viewed Zelensky’s statement, Peskov said Zelensky “did not refuse to come to Moscow” as Russian media reports had suggested.
It also comes as Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha this week said Ukraine had agreed to carry out a complete and unconditional ceasefire and called on Russia to do the same. On Thursday, Peskov stressed that Russia is very much “open to a peaceful settlement process” but still favored a longer term “peace not a temporary truce.”
The Ukrainian presidency told CNN that the Ukrainian delegation including Zelensky are making their way back to Kyiv after a host of high-level meetings in New York with world leaders including President Donald Trump and UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham.
It's been nearly 3 years since the Israel-Hamas war began
The leaders of both the Palestinian Authority and Israel are set to deliver remarks at the United Nations General Assembly today, nearly three years since the war in Gaza began.
Hamas’ terror attacks on October 7, 2023, killed over 1,200 people in Israel. Many more were injured or sexually assaulted, and the attack prompted furious retaliation from the Israeli government.
In the years since, more than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza. Around 1.9 million people in the enclave — or about 90% of the population — have been displaced during the war, according to the United Nations.
Last September, an independent United Nations inquiry concluded that Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, joining a host of other organizations, including the International Association of Genocide Scholars, in making this accusation.
The Israeli government has firmly denied the claim, accusing the UN inquiry’s authors of being Hamas proxies.
After the war began, regional allies of Hamas, including Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, launched attacks on Israel in retaliation for its bombardment of Gaza.
A year of combat in Lebanon ensued, during which Israel killed Hezbollah’s longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
In November 2024, Israel approved a ceasefire deal that required it to withdraw from southern Lebanon, but Israeli forces continued to hold positions beyond the deadline and carried out near-daily strikes, alleging Hezbollah violations of the deal.
A new cycle of violence began after Israel and the US killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in an airstrike on Tehran in late February.
At least 8,953 people have been killed and 30,643 have been injured in Israeli attacks on Lebanon since October 8, 2023, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said last week.
At least 4,386 of these deaths have occurred since the renewed Israeli campaign in Lebanon began in early March, according to the ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures.
CNN’s Kara Fox, Nadeen Ebrahim, Tim Lister, Oren Liebermann and Ibrahim Dahman contributed to this reporting.
Netanyahu's trip to the US for his UN speech will be unusually brief
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is undertaking an unusually brief trip to the United States, slated to land in New York only hours before his Thursday address to the UN General Assembly and departing the same night.
The one-day visit marks a sharp departure from Netanyahu’s typical UN trips, which have historically included multiple days of meetings in New York and Washington, DC. This time, he will not even be staying the night. He is also not scheduled to meet President Donald Trump.
The speech comes roughly a month before Israel’s October elections, and will be broadcast live on domestic primetime TV. A source close to Netanyahu said the schedule was significantly shortened because of the proximity to the elections and Netanyahu’s wish to return quickly for campaign purposes.
The absence of a meeting with is notable, given that it is usually a central feature of Netanyahu’s visits to the US. The two leaders last met in the White House in August, but without any press or cameras.
A source close to Netanyahu attributed the lack of a meeting with Trump to “scheduling constraints” and rejected the notion that it reflects a cooling in their relationship in the aftermath of the Iran war. However, as Trump’s decision to end the Iran war significantly weakened his popularity in Israel, the source said Netanyahu is “uncertain if the president’s support and endorsement will even help him.”
Netanyahu’s trip will reportedly take place under tightened security. The Israeli government aircraft, Wing of Zion, is expected to land in New Jersey and not at one of New York’s airports. Several demonstrations are planned during his speech, including a march from Bryant Park organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement and a protest by UnXeptable, an Israeli anti-government group operating in the US, in New York’s Union Square.
Banned from entering US, Palestinian Authority president speech will be virtual
Banned from entering the United States, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will instead deliver his UN General Assembly speech virtually.
For the second straight year, the Trump administration has prohibited Abbas and his delegation from traveling to the United States, forcing the nonagenarian Palestinian to transmit his speech from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. Abbas is scheduled to speak Wednesday morning, several hours before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The decision to ban Abbas is all the more striking because the Trump administration allowed Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to enter the US, along with his delegation. Throughout the months-long war that the US and Israel launched against Iran in late-February, Iran has attacked and killed US forces in the Middle East, destroyed American military equipment in the region, and hammered US bases.
Meanwhile, under President Donald Trump’s stalled 20-point ceasefire plan for Gaza, a reformed Palestinian Authority is supposed to take over Gaza at some point. In other words, the Palestinian Authority is supposed to be the partner, not Iran.
Yet the US held hours of talks with Iran’s delegation. US envoy Steve Witkoff met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi for at least two hours this week. The Palestinian Authority will have no chance for such a meeting.
Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority's Mahmoud Abbas to address UN today
Welcome back to our coverage of all the big developments and speeches at the UN General Assembly today.
We’re expecting speeches from both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas today, though his remarks will be delivered remotely because the Trump administration denied visas to Abbas and other Palestinian officials.
Abbas is the fourth speaker in this morning’s session while Netanyahu, who is making a notably short trip without meeting US President Donald Trump, will speak 17th. In total, 35 countries will speak today as we steadily make our way through all the UN member states during this high-level week when the world’s leaders and top diplomats descend on New York.
However, some of the diplomatic focus will today be pulled away from New York toward Washington DC, where Chinese leader Xi Jinping is making his first state visit to the US since 2015, though few major diplomatic breakthroughs are expected.
Key takeaways from Day 2 of the UN General Assembly
The second day of the General Debate of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly featured more speeches from world leaders, including addresses from Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Here are some highlights:
Venezuela
- Venezuela’s acting President Rodríguez said Venezuela will hold elections and transition to a full democracy — but did not specify when — in her address to the UNGA more than eight months after the US captured her predecessor Nicolás Maduro.
- Rodríguez thanked US President Donald Trump for “his willingness to resume the path of diplomatic relations and cooperation.”
- She also addressed Venezuelans recovering from the devastating earthquakes that shook the country in June, saying: “Let us walk united as one nation that decided, in the wake of pain, to choose hope.”
Iran
- Iran’s President Pezeshkian told the General Assembly his country will “never bow our head or bend at the knee” to the US.
- He said the Iranian people have been “the victims of terrorism,” countering Trump’s speech on Tuesday, where he called the Iranians “terrorists.”
- Separately, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US-Iran talks on the sidelines of the UNGA did not yield a breakthrough.
Ukraine
- In his UNGA speech, Ukrainian President Zelensky called Russian President Vladimir Putin “patient zero,” saying the more freedom he has to act, “the more dangerous the world becomes for everyone else.”
- Zelensky later said a Russian attack on Kyiv Wednesday killed at least two people, urging the international community to increase pressure on Russia to end its more than four-year war.
Spain
- Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called for reforming the UN Security Council to “ensure fair representation for all regions of the world and to end the veto power of permanent members” in his address.
Panama
- Earlier, Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino also proposed reforming the Security Council to grant permanent membership to countries from Latin America and the Caribbean.
