UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has officially opened the 81st General Assembly.
US President Donald Trump was among the first speakers. His speech contained mixed messages on Iran: a combination both of threats but also mentioning that a “deal to stop the fighting” was also a realistic prospect.
“I have a big decision to make. Will there be a deal made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before, maybe one of the greatest in the Middle East or even the world? Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again?” — the US President said, asking the questions of himself.
Turkish president Erdogan has accused Israel of a “genocidal mindset” against Palestinians in his speech.
“God willing, we shall see those good days when an independent state of Palestine, based on the 1967 borders, with territorial integrity and with East Jerusalem as its capital, will be established,” he said.
Erdogan told the assembly that more than 1,500 people had been killed in Gaza even since the shaky ceasefire agreement was reached with the help of Turkiye last year.
Alexander Stubb, president of Finland, has told the audience that the world faced a choice between cooperation and conflict.
“Competition will always be there. Nations compete now harder than they did a generation ago. This doesn’t worry me. What does, is that more and more of them now compete against the rules on which the international order rests,” he said.
“The rules are the best ways to ensure that competition does not escalate into conflict, and that cooperation gains ground,” he added.
