By Antoni Slodkowski
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 26 (Reuters) – Limousines ferried world leaders away from the United Nations on Friday, capping a week of speeches, bilateral meetings, and corridor diplomacy.
Although no breakthroughs emerged on the world’s most intractable conflicts, negotiations on the wars in Iran and Ukraine edged forward, and global powers leveraged the forum to debate the risks of artificial intelligence with industry leaders.
Here are the key takeaways from scores of panels, hundreds of meetings, hours queuing for speeches, and countless cups of coffee:
REBOOT OF IRAN DIPLOMACY
The UN proved most useful in facilitating the first shuttle talks between American and Iranian officials since the collapse of a ceasefire in July. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner communicated through mediators.
The efforts must continue, a senior Iranian official told Reuters, even as Iranian and American leaders exchanged sharp words in the General Assembly hall, with the U.S. threatening to “annihilate” Iran and Iran accusing the U.S. of a “bullying mentality.”
The senior Iranian official said Tehran was reviewing Washington’s response to its proposals, which include lifting a U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports and reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
But no agreement appeared imminent. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio cautioned that a deal would involve hard work over time.
UKRAINE GRAIN AND ENERGY
Rubio also met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, afterward stating that both Ukraine and Russia had expressed interest in a limited ceasefire covering grain shipments and energy infrastructure.
Ukraine and its allies are racing to finalize limited agreements on energy infrastructure and Black Sea shipping before winter, fearing renewed Russian strikes on power and heating facilities.
Hours after Rubio’s remarks on Wednesday, however, Lavrov addressed a Security Council meeting on Ukraine and showed no indication that Moscow was prepared to engage. “Europe, whatever it thinks, just wants to get a pause, and it wants to use it to pump the Kyiv regime with weapons,” Lavrov said.
AI STEALS CLIMATE’S SPOTLIGHT
Climate change — a staple of recent UN discussions — was largely sidelined by debate over artificial intelligence.
The diplomatic gathering coincided with an unprecedented surge of concern over AI following several safety breaches and warnings from top researchers that the technology could threaten humanity.
The UN convened a Security Council meeting featuring OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei in person. Both industry leaders urged governments to collaborate on managing AI.
Underscoring those concerns, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese revealed that an AI agent developed by OpenAI had infiltrated an Australian government website in June, accessing both public and non-public files.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who has dismissed AI risks as a “hoax” and “sick conspiracy,” told the General Assembly he “rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme to control” AI, calling the technology “amazing” while pledging the U.S. would proceed cautiously.
SURPRISE ARRIVAL
The most surprising attendee was Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez, who held her first in-person talks with Trump since assuming power after U.S. forces detained then-President Nicolás Maduro in a dramatic nighttime raid.
The Venezuelan delegation focused on restructuring billions of dollars in sovereign debt, meeting with U.S. officials, multilateral lenders, and private companies.
In his address to the body dedicated to global peace, Trump declared that in Venezuela, “to the victor belong the spoils,” and hailed an oil deal signed with Caracas last month as “perhaps the biggest deal ever made.”
As Rodríguez and Trump met in New York, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado made three unsuccessful attempts to return to her country.
SURPRISE ABSENCE
The most notable absence was Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. The United States withheld his visa, a move Sudanese and other sources linked to a U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal that Khartoum has resisted.
The dispute, first reported by Reuters, threatened to deepen tensions between Washington and Sudan’s army at a critical juncture in a civil war the UN describes as the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
Burhan had represented Sudan at the General Assembly since the coup. Another notable absentee was Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who addressed delegates via video and condemned U.S. restrictions on the Palestinian mission’s access to the UN.
UNCERTAIN FUTURE
The cash-strapped United Nations may no longer be in “freefall,” but it remains mired in an “open-ended crisis,” according to International Crisis Group analyst Richard Gowan. The organization is grappling with shrinking budgets, waning influence, and mounting geopolitical conflicts.
Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East rage on, while Trump has denounced the 193-member body as bloated and globalist, slashed U.S. funding, and withdrawn from dozens of UN agencies.
As UN Secretary-General António Guterres received a standing ovation after his final General Assembly address, a small group of politicians and former UN officials lobbied publicly and privately to succeed him. His second five-year term ends on December 31, leaving scant time for the world’s major powers to agree on a successor.
The selection process, an arcane multi-step procedure involving “straw polls,” has no clear frontrunner, though former Costa Rican Vice President Rebeca Grynspan and Guyana’s UN Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett are seen as leading contenders.
Whoever secures the world’s most difficult diplomatic post will inherit an organization buffeted by crises, low morale, and declining political relevance — and will, in turn, welcome leaders to New York for next year’s summit.
