UN General Assembly updates: Syria’s al-Sharaa urges end to all sanctions

The second day of the UN General Assembly’s General Debate has ended, and this live page is now closed.

Read more about President Trump’s dramatic turn of face this week on Ukraine here.

To learn more about Ukraine and Syria formally restoring diplomatic ties after meeting on the UNGA’s sidelines, read this.

For more information on Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s speech, in which he pledged Tehran will “never seek to build a nuclear bomb”, read this piece.

Wednesday’s session of the UN General Assembly has now closed. Here are some of the day’s main developments:

• In his speech to the UNGA, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the international community to invest in weapons, not words, to support Ukraine’s defence against Russia’s invasion.
• US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines, telling the Russian delegation that the killing must stop in Ukraine.
• Ahmed al-Sharaa became the first Syrian president in nearly six decades to address the UNGA, using his remarks to call for “the complete lifting” of sanctions against his country.
• Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country “has never sought and will never seek to build a nuclear bomb”, as he pitched his country as a “trustworthy companion” to those facing Israeli aggression.
• Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Italy believes “Israel has no right to prevent the future creation of a Palestinian state, nor to build new settlements in the West Bank”.
• Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said his country would be sending a military vessel to accompany the Global Sumud Flotilla as it attempts to deliver aid to Gaza, following the most recent drone attack on the fleet of vessels carrying aid.

Earlier, we reported that Australian Prime Minister Albanese condemned Iran in his speech to the UN General Assembly for allegedly orchestrating attacks against Australia’s Jewish community.

In its right to reply at the end of Wednesday’s UNGA session, the Iranian representative said Tehran “categorically rejects the baseless and unsubstantiated allegations” made by Albanese, and views them as “being in alignment with the Israeli regime [and a] broader strategy of promoting Iran-phobia”.

“The concept of anti-Semitism has regrettably been weaponised to silence legitimate criticism and protest against occupation, apartheid and the ongoing crimes being committed by the Israeli regime against the Palestinian people,” Iran’s representative said.

As we have been reporting, the Italian premier addressed the recognition of Palestinian statehood a short while ago.

Meloni also addressed Israel’s war on Gaza, saying that while she believes the “ferocity and brutality” of the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel prompted an initial legitimate response, Israel has now “exceeded that limit”.

“The Jewish state has ended up violating humanitarian norms, causing a massacre among civilians,” Meloni said.

“This choice, which Italy has repeatedly deemed unacceptable, will lead us to vote in favour of some of the sanctions proposed by the European Commission against Israel,” she said.

Meloni added, however, that Italy does “not side with those who heap all the blame for what is happening in Gaza on Israel”.

“Because it was Hamas that unleashed the war,” she continued.

“It is Hamas that could end the suffering of Palestinians by immediately releasing all the hostages. It is Hamas that seems intent on thriving on the suffering of the people it claims to represent,” she said.

Speaking at the UNGA a short while ago, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Italy believes “Israel has no right to prevent the future creation of a Palestinian state, nor to build new settlements in the West Bank”.

“To that end, for this reason, we have signed the New York Declaration on the two-state solution. This is Italy’s historic position on the Palestinian question, and has never changed,” Meloni said.

“At the same time, we believe that the recognition of Palestine must have two indispensable preconditions: the release of all Israeli hostages and Hamas renunciation of any role in the government of Palestine, for those who unleash the conflict cannot be rewarded,” she said.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reiterated his country’s calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and for aid to flow freely into the war-torn enclave, as well as the immediate release of Israelis held captive by Hamas, in his speech to the UNGA.

“This week, Australia recognised the state of Palestine because … we are determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, to promote social progress, and better standards of life,” he said.

Albanese also used his speech to condemn attacks on Australia’s Jewish community – which, in August, Canberra accused Iran of orchestrating – describing them as “criminal acts of cowardice aimed at spreading fear”.

“We expelled the Iranian ambassador from Australia, the first time since the Second World War that our country has taken such a step. And here at the United Nations, we repeat to the world, there is no place for anti-Semitism,” he said.

Speaking at the UNGA, Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said, “Russia wants a world where brute force prevails over international law,” adding that Moscow “doesn’t want peace”.

Rinkevics added that “Ukraine is fighting for all of us; for the rules-based international order; for independence and sovereignty; for territorial integrity”.

The Latvian leader’s comments came after three Russian MiG-31 fighter aircraft violated the airspace of neighbouring Estonia for more than 10 minutes on Tuesday.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.

In a brief statement, the US State Department said Rubio “reiterated President Trump’s call for the killing to stop and the need for Moscow to take meaningful steps toward a durable resolution of the Russia-Ukraine war”.

Russia-US relations are increasingly strained after Trump seemingly reversed his position on whether Ukraine would have to cede territory to Moscow on Tuesday, claiming he believes Ukraine can reclaim all its occupied lands.

US President Donald Trump’s speech at the UN General Assembly made waves as he covered wars, climate change and the economy.

Jillian Wolf checked the facts behind the president’s claims.

Watch below:

One of the strongest undercurrents in this week’s General Debate has been a sense of dissatisfaction with the power a small clutch of countries wields over the UN.

Multiple speakers today have called for reform to the UN Security Council, which is dominated by its five permanent members: the US, Russia, China, France and the UK.

But some self-described “small countries” have been pushing to band together to exert more influence themselves.

“ In Slovakia, we believe that small countries must be smart,” President Peter Pellegrini told the audience.

He warned that “the rule of the powerful and the use of the military force are returning as tools of policy” and called on UN members to reject the “ right of might”.

Some experts believe the UN General Assembly – composed of all 193 member states – will play an increasing role in issues of global security, as frustration grows with the UN Security Council.

After nearly being killed in June during an Israeli attack on Gaza, 10-year-old Rasha felt compelled to write her will.

“If I become a martyr or pass away, please do not cry for me because your tears cause me pain,” she wrote. “I hope my clothes will be given to those in need.”

Thaer Ahmad, a Palestinian American physician who has been volunteering in Gaza for the past two years, told Rasha’s story to diplomats on Wednesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

Her story was one of many presented at an event for the “Call to Action for Palestinian Children in the West Bank and Gaza”. Go inside the event here.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the president of Sri Lanka, told the UN General Assembly that suffering due to conflict has reached “unprecedented levels”.

But, he warned, the UN has been reduced to the role of bystander as atrocities unfold.

He then pointed to the devastation in Gaza, where an independent UN commission this month found Israeli actions amounted to genocide.

“We are deeply distressed by the ongoing catastrophe in the Gaza Strip. Gaza has been turned into an open prison full of pain and suffering, echoing with the cries of children and innocent civilians,” he said, calling for recognition of Palestinian statehood.

Watch his remarks below.

What happened on the second day of the UN General Debate? Let’s dive in.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was the second speaker in today’s lineup, and he called on the international community to invest weapons, not words, to support Ukraine’s defence.
• Zelenskyy also warned that artificial intelligence and cheap technology was dramatically changing the landscape of modern war.
• Ahmed al-Sharaa became the first Syrian president in nearly six decades to address the UN General Assembly.
• Al-Sharaa used his remarks to call for “the complete lifting” of the sanctions against his country.
• Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian pitched his country as a “steadfast partner and a trustworthy companion” to those facing Israeli aggression.
• Pezeshkian also used his podium to once again reject accusations that his country is trying to build a nuclear weapon.
• Speakers, including the Dominican Republic’s Luis Abinader and Kenya’s William Ruto, highlighted the need to better support the UN-backed mission to Haiti, a country suffering from instability and widespread gang violence.
• Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced that his country would be sending a military vessel to accompany the Global Sumud Flotilla as it attempts to deliver aid to Gaza, following an apparent drone attack.
• African leaders, including President Julius Maada Bio of Sierra Leone, called for the continent to have a seat on the UN Security Council, amid frustration with the “big-power” leadership.

Eighty years since the founding of the UN, said Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso, there has been a “disturbing resurgence of armed conflicts the world over. In so many places, the language of weapons has won out over good sense and diplomacy.”

Like a number of others who have spoken this week, Sassou Nguesso, is urging a stronger and more effective UN.

“Multilateralism is under threat by national egotism and by unilateral policies, which are a source source of harmful diplomatic crises,” he said.

Sassou Nguesso called for a reformed UN, particularly within the Security Council – whose current composition “no longer reflects the current geopolitical balance of our world”.

“Africa cannot remain marginalised.”

The Congo leader also said the country remains “a staunch supporter of the two-state solution – Israeli and Palestinian states living side by side in peace.”

Syrian citizens in Damascus gathered around a large outdoor scene in Umayyad Square to witness an historic event: the first time in nearly six decades that a Syrian president spoke at the UN General Debate.

Some onlookers shot fireworks into the air in celebration, while children and adults alike waved Syrian flags.

Take a look at the scene in Damascus below.

The leaders have met on the sidelines of the UNGA shortly after both Zelenskyy and al-Sharaa delivered highly anticipated speeches.

In a post on Telegram, Zelenskyy said Ukraine had formally restored diplomatic relations with Syria.

Former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, who was ousted in December, had been a close ally of Russia and had recognised occupied Ukrainian land as Russian territory.

Relations between the US and Brazil have sunk to a nadir in recent months.

As Brazilian prosecutors pursued a criminal case against former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, Trump pushed back, calling on the charges to be dropped.

He sanctioned Brazilian officials and slapped 50 percent tariffs on Brazilian exports to the US in an effort to pressure an end to the trial.

This month, Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison. Meanwhile, Trump has exchanged barbs with Brazil’s current president, the left-wing leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

But on Wednesday, Lula suggested a breakthrough may be near, after bumping into Trump at the UN General Assembly.

“I made a point of telling President Trump that we have a lot to talk about,” Lula told reporters.

Still, Lula maintained that Trump was wrong in his accusation that Brazil was biased against right-wing voices.

“I believe he is ill-informed about Brazil,” Lula said. “Possibly that’s what led him to make some unacceptable decisions.”

Melinda Haring, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank, told Al Jazeera that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “aced” his speech at the UN General Assembly today.

But as strong a speech as it was, Haring said it pales in comparison to his US counterpart’s announcement a day earlier.

On Tuesday, Trump reversed his position on whether Ukraine would have to cede territory to Russia, claiming that he believes Ukraine can reclaim all its occupied lands.

Haring explained that Ukraine has “never been in a better position with President Trump than it is right now”.

“It’s a massive change. Let’s think back to that February explosive Oval Office meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump,” she said, pointing to a bitter public argument that Trump and Zelenskyy had in front of journalists.

The mood, Haring explained, has changed between the two leaders.

“Yesterday, Zelenskyy couldn’t hide his grin when they were taking that photo at the UN,” she pointed out.

Haring believes Trump’s reversal comes down to several factors. She pointed out that several individuals in Trump’s inner circle, including his wife Melania, appear to feel strongly about the “moral issues” involved in the Russia-Ukraine war.

“There’s a couple of things that matter with Trump. Trump cares about who is in the room and who talked to him last,” Haring said. “So there’s a circle around him that is pro-Ukrainian, that has been telling him about the dangers of Putin: ‘You can’t trust Putin. Putin doesn’t keep his word. He’s hitting civilians.'”

It remains to be seen, however, whether the US Congress will respond to Trump’s about-face with a new aid package for Ukraine.

“It’s a massive rhetorical shift, but let’s follow the money. Is Congress going to authorise another package of assistance, like it did in 2024? I don’t see any evidence of that yet, but I think it’s possible,” Haring said.

Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine opened her speech with an impassioned plea for a coordinated, global response to climate change.

“My low-lying atoll nation bears witness to the sharpest edge of climate change,” she said, noting that climate change is the region’s “number one security threat.”

“The scale of impact and the future of our youngest generations depend on whether global powers are working together. If I could find a louder alarm for the Pacific Islands than any of my words today, I would sound it,” she said.

On the 10th anniversary of the Paris climate agreement, Heine noted that most countries have fallen far short of their promises to cut back on fossil fuels.

“Its ruling was clear – there are binding obligations to prevent exactly the type of significant harm that we see today, and that will only worsen as temperatures rise. The vast majority of countries are failing to meet their obligations,” she said.

“It is past time for the rich world to meet these obligations and get money to where it’s needed most.”

On the sidelines of the UN General Debate on Wednesday, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced that his country would send a military vessel from the port of Cartagena to accompany the Global Sumud Flotilla, a group of civilian boats seeking to deliver aid to war-torn Gaza.

“The government of Spain insists that international law be respected and that the right of our citizens should be respected to sail through the Mediterranean in safe conditions,” Sanchez said.

Spain’s decision follows a similar announcement from Italy. The flotilla had been attacked by drones off the coast of Greece earlier this week.

Listen to Sanchez’s words below: