By — Nick Schifrin Nick Schifrin By — Yasmeen Sami Alamiri Yasmeen Sami Alamiri Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/what-to-expect-at-this-weeks-u-n-general-assembly-meetings Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter What to expect at this week’s U.N. General Assembly meetings World Sep 22, 2025 4:23 PM EDT World leaders are gathering this week for the 80th United Nations General Assembly to discuss a number of key issues. WATCH LIVE: Day 1 of the 2025 United Nations General Assembly PBS News’ Nick Schifrin is in New York for the high-level meetings and shared what he’s watching. More nations officially recognizing Palestine France and Saudi Arabia on Monday chaired a meeting to build support for the recognition of a Palestinian state, despite heavy opposition from the United States and Israel. The U.S. is the only permanent member of the U.N. Security Council not to recognize a Palestinian state. WATCH LIVE: Trump addresses UN General Assembly for first time since reelection Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will take the main stage Friday, has rejected the idea of a future Palestinian state.”It will not happen. A Palestinian state will not be established west of the Jordan River,” Netanyahu said in a statement in reaction to the push. President Donald Trump said the move “is a publicity stunt that comes in the middle of delicate diplomatic efforts to end the conflict. Far from promoting peace, the conference will prolong the war, embolden Hamas, and reward its obstruction and undermine real-world efforts to achieve peace.” Efforts to end the Ukraine war as Russia makes repeated incursions into NATO territory More than three years into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the ongoing war and efforts to end it will be key points of deliberation. READ MORE: Russia and Ukraine trade deadly drone strikes on civilian areas as Zelenskyy anticipates intense diplomacy at UN The high-level general debate comes days after an unprecedented incursion of three Russian fighter jets into Estonian airspace without permission, according to the Estonian Foreign Ministry. Just over a week before, NATO forces shot down Russian drones over Poland. In response, Trump dismissed the drone incursions, saying it “could have been a mistake.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy plans to meet with Trump on the sidelines of the UNGA general debate, in what he anticipated to be “a very intense week” of diplomacy. The U.N. Security Council was set to have a meeting focused specifically on the war in Ukraine on Tuesday. Iran threatening to back out of coordination with the International Atomic Energy Agency Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian comes to New York in the midst of a conflict over U.N. sanctions tied to the 2015 nuclear deal. WATCH: Why European countries want to reimpose harsh sanctions on Iran South Korea introduced a U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at halting “snapback” sanctions after intense negotiations between Iran and European nations broke down and the nations moved to trigger those sanctions. When that resolution failed, Iran said it would “effectively suspend” its cooperation with the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, the IAEA. We're not going anywhere. Stand up for truly independent, trusted news that you can count on! Donate now By — Nick Schifrin Nick Schifrin Nick Schifrin is PBS NewsHour’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Correspondent. He leads NewsHour’s daily foreign coverage, including multiple trips to Ukraine since the full-scale invasion, and has created weeklong series for the NewsHour from nearly a dozen countries. The PBS NewsHour series “Inside Putin’s Russia” won a 2017 Peabody Award and the National Press Club’s Edwin M. Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence. In 2020 Schifrin received the American Academy of Diplomacy’s Arthur Ross Media Award for Distinguished Reporting and Analysis of Foreign Affairs. He was a member of the NewsHour teams awarded a 2021 Peabody for coverage of COVID-19, and a 2023 duPont Columbia Award for coverage of Afghanistan and Ukraine. Prior to PBS NewsHour, Schifrin was Al Jazeera America's Middle East correspondent. He led the channel’s coverage of the 2014 war in Gaza; reported on the Syrian war from Syria's Turkish, Lebanese and Jordanian borders; and covered the annexation of Crimea. He won an Overseas Press Club award for his Gaza coverage and a National Headliners Award for his Ukraine coverage. From 2008-2012, Schifrin served as the ABC News correspondent in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 2011 he was one of the first journalists to arrive in Abbottabad, Pakistan, after Osama bin Laden’s death and delivered one of the year’s biggest exclusives: the first video from inside bin Laden’s compound. His reporting helped ABC News win an Edward R. Murrow award for its bin Laden coverage. Schifrin is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a board member of the Overseas Press Club Foundation. He has a Bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and a Master of International Public Policy degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). @nickschifrin By — Yasmeen Sami Alamiri Yasmeen Sami Alamiri Yasmeen Sami Alamiri is the Senior Editor for video and special projects at the PBS NewsHour.
World leaders are gathering this week for the 80th United Nations General Assembly to discuss a number of key issues. WATCH LIVE: Day 1 of the 2025 United Nations General Assembly PBS News’ Nick Schifrin is in New York for the high-level meetings and shared what he’s watching. More nations officially recognizing Palestine France and Saudi Arabia on Monday chaired a meeting to build support for the recognition of a Palestinian state, despite heavy opposition from the United States and Israel. The U.S. is the only permanent member of the U.N. Security Council not to recognize a Palestinian state. WATCH LIVE: Trump addresses UN General Assembly for first time since reelection Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will take the main stage Friday, has rejected the idea of a future Palestinian state.”It will not happen. A Palestinian state will not be established west of the Jordan River,” Netanyahu said in a statement in reaction to the push. President Donald Trump said the move “is a publicity stunt that comes in the middle of delicate diplomatic efforts to end the conflict. Far from promoting peace, the conference will prolong the war, embolden Hamas, and reward its obstruction and undermine real-world efforts to achieve peace.” Efforts to end the Ukraine war as Russia makes repeated incursions into NATO territory More than three years into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the ongoing war and efforts to end it will be key points of deliberation. READ MORE: Russia and Ukraine trade deadly drone strikes on civilian areas as Zelenskyy anticipates intense diplomacy at UN The high-level general debate comes days after an unprecedented incursion of three Russian fighter jets into Estonian airspace without permission, according to the Estonian Foreign Ministry. Just over a week before, NATO forces shot down Russian drones over Poland. In response, Trump dismissed the drone incursions, saying it “could have been a mistake.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy plans to meet with Trump on the sidelines of the UNGA general debate, in what he anticipated to be “a very intense week” of diplomacy. The U.N. Security Council was set to have a meeting focused specifically on the war in Ukraine on Tuesday. Iran threatening to back out of coordination with the International Atomic Energy Agency Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian comes to New York in the midst of a conflict over U.N. sanctions tied to the 2015 nuclear deal. WATCH: Why European countries want to reimpose harsh sanctions on Iran South Korea introduced a U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at halting “snapback” sanctions after intense negotiations between Iran and European nations broke down and the nations moved to trigger those sanctions. When that resolution failed, Iran said it would “effectively suspend” its cooperation with the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, the IAEA. We're not going anywhere. Stand up for truly independent, trusted news that you can count on! Donate now