UNGA: Abbas blasts US and Israel, calls for Palestinian self-determination

Mahmoud Abbas had to address the General Assembly via video since the US State Department refused to let him into the countryImage: Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images/AFPAdvertisementSkip next section What you need to knowWhat you need to know Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged nations to support the two-state solution Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has arrived in New York with protests expected at the UN The UK will host a meeting on the future of the Gaza Strip, while Saudi Arabia and Norway have called a ministerial meeting to discuss the implementation of the so-called two-state solution Beyond the Middle East, day 3 of the UNGA will address the problem that rising sea levels pose for low-lying islands and coastal regions Read below for all the top headlines, videos and analyses on the 81 UN General Assembly from September 22-28, 2026:

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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas used his remarks to implore nations to support the two-state solution, saying his people seek a non-militarized, democratic Palestinian state that can exist alongside Israel in peace.

He said the first step to preserving the idea of such a solution is to protect the lands upon which a future Palestinian state would be based, as well as protecting those people who have lived upon them for generations.

Abbas underscored the fact that the Palestinian people would not be displaced by "military occupation, nor settlement expansion, annexation, nor settler terrorism."

He further said that "no lasting security can be built upon the occupation of another people and the denial of its legitimate rights," adding that the Palestinians have their own plans for an independent state and emphasizing the need to end the Israeli occupation in order to negotiate a solution.

This plan, Abbas said, is based on protecting Palestinians from displacement, preserving their lands, democratically renewing political institutions and building a new sovereign Palestinian state — with east Jerusalem as its capital.

All of this, he said, would be carried out with a "commitment to international law" and the right to exercise self-determination with the aim of achieving security and peace with Israel to, "pave the way to regional integration, cooperation, prosperity and security for everyone."

Abbas concluded his remarks by thanking those 160 nations whom he said have recognized Palestinian statehood, calling for its inclusion in the United Nations.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, addressing those gathered at the UNGA via video because the US State Department refused to allow the Palestinian delegation into the country, has rejected Washington's approach as "unlawful and punitive."

Abbas described the denial of visas as a US failure to live up to its responsibility as the host nation of the international body.

Abbas quickly pivoted to blast Israel's "genocidal war" in Gaza, as well as the sanctioned "ethnic cleansing" perpetrated by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.

Saying that Israeli violations of international law put the two-state solution at grave risk, Abbas described the situation in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem as part of a "malicious colonial scheme" and warned of a "new Nakba."

He also referenced attacks on Muslim and Christian religious sites by radical Jews as having the potential to transform the current security situation into a wider religiously fueled conflict.

Beyond AI and the headline-grabbing conflict in the Middle East, the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday will discuss another pressing issue that impacts the world’s citizens — rising sea levels.

A high-level meeting is slated to begin at 10:00 a.m. (1400 GMT) on Thursday as swelling seas redraw coastlines and pose existential risks for islanders and those who live in low-lying areas near the shores of the world's oceans and seas.

The UN says nearly 900 million people live in such areas, adding that another one million could be impacted by mid-century.

Rising sea levels, says the UN, threaten not only land but also livelihoods and even the existence of entire nations. In the words of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, "Rising seas are sinking futures."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are both expected to address members of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Thursday, with the issue of the Middle East writ large on the day 3 agenda.

Netanyahu, who is increasingly unpopular at home and abroad, will not meet with US officials or Arab leaders during his stay. His office cited a "tight schedule" as the reason, listing as many as nine meetings during his visit, including with the presidents of Argentina and Bolivia, the vice president of Colombia and the prime minister of Papua New Guinea.

The increasingly isolated Israeli leader's Palestinian counterpart, President Mahmoud Abbas, will also address the General Assembly. Abbas, however, will do so via video, as the US State Department refused to issue him an entry visa.

The broader subjects of Gaza's future and Palestinian statehood will also be topics of discussion. The UK will convene a meeting on Gaza's current and future status, and Saudi Arabia and Norway will host a ministerial meeting to hash out plans for the implementation of the so-called "two-state solution."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the ongoing war between the countries, calling him "patient zero."

The Ukrainian leader also announced new defense deals with Finland and Australia.

Elsewhere, Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa called for the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights to end, saying the territory belongs to Syria. 

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez also addressed Israel, calling for what he described as the "genocide" in Gaza to stop.

This comes ahead of a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the UN General Assembly on Thursday.  

Besides world leaders, top bosses at AI companies also addressed the UN about dangers concerning artificial intelligence.

AI executives spoke to the UN Security Council and urged international cooperation on the hotly debated technology. 

Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, highlighted two big risks with AI.

"First, we could lose control of the future to AI. The risk is that it moves so fast that people can no longer follow what's happening or intervene when needed," he said, adding that such a scenario would be "terrible."

Second, he said AI systems "could concentrate too much power in too few hands." "No one person or company or country should be able to use the most powerful AI models to impose their worldview on everyone else."

Anthropic boss Dario Amodei used the platform to call for a ban on the use of AI in the development of biological weapons, describing AI as the most crucial global security issue facing the world.

"If managed poorly, I even believe AI could be a risk to humanity as a whole," he said.

Amodei also urged global standards for testing new AI models.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchezcalled for reforming the UN Security Council so that "all of the regions in the world" would be fairly represented.

Sanchez quoted the UN Charter, saying "no country should be a judge in its own case, no matter how powerful they are."

The Spanish leader continued to condemn the "genocide that (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin)  Netanyahu is still perpetrating in Gaza," while pointing to Madrid's sanctions against Russia as an example of his government's willingness to take action against countries whose conduct violates the UN Charter.

Congolese Prime Minister ‌Judith ​Suminwa Tuluka described the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a "major test" for the country.

"For the DRC, fighting this epidemic is an absolute priority. After having contained ​16 previous outbreaks, the DRC is mobilizing recognized scientific and operational expertise. And thanks to national mobilization and the support of our partners, the response has recently begun ​producing tangible results," she told the UN General Assembly.

As of 22 September 2026, Congo reported a total of 7, 773 confirmed cases, including 3,759 related deaths. A total of 839 patients are hospitalized in isolation. 

Venezuela's acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, delivered her first address to the UN General Assembly since coming to power, promising her country would hold elections when the nation's people determine the "right moment."

"I want to ‌make ⁠this very ⁠clear at this General Assembly: there will be elections in Venezuela," Rodriguez said, adding that her country "has initiated the process of democratic transformation for its rebirth" following two blows this year.

First, "strangulation of its internal political life and the heightened confrontation with the United States" and second, the earthquakes on June 24 that caused the deaths of more than 6,500 people.

Rodriguez took power after the US toppled the then-president Nicolas Maduro in January.

Rodríguez briefly met US President Donald Trump at the UN General Assembly as well. 

DW's US Correspondent Misha Komadovsky reported that the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha met with the Iranian delegation on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Sybiah earlier in the day told a UN Security Council meeting that Ukraine was ready for an immediate and complete ceasefire without preconditions, if Moscow did too. 

In a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul called on Iran to end its closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

"It is up to Iran to engage constructively in negotiations and to loosen its stranglehold," Wadephul told journalists ahead of the meeting.

Wadephul also urged Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to engage seriously and credibly in sustainable negotiations with the US and neighboring states in the region, sources in the German delegation were cited by the DPA news agency as saying.

"There must now be an overall willingness to compromise in order to bring about a solution to the deadlocked conflict in the region," Wadephul was quoted as saying.

He stressed the readiness of Germany and the so-called E3, which also includes France and the United Kingdom, to support mediation efforts.

Wadephul also stressed in the talks the need for Iran and militias it supports in the region, namely Yemen's Houthi rebels, to halt attacks on civilian ships. He added that Berlin expects free transit through the Strait of Hormuz to be restored immediately, stressing the rejection of any fees for passage through the critical waterway.

"Not only the Gulf States, but large parts of Asia, Africa and also Europe are suffering under this blockade," Wadephul said.

He added that Germany welcomes renewed talks between the US and Iran on the sidelines of the General Assembly, adding that he planned to speak to his counterparts from Jordan, Pakistan, Iraq and Oman.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also announced fresh deals with Finland and Australia related to defense, adding that another deal with Canada will follow.

Kyiv's defense experience against Russian drone strikes has now made it a world leader in the field.

"We are already working with partners in the Gulf, the South Caucasus, and across Europe through drone deals. Today, I signed a drone deal, a serious drone deal, with Finland," he said.

"Also today, I signed [a] security agreement with Australia, and drones are part of it too."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also addressed the ways the war in Ukraine had spread, not least North Korea sending troops to fight on Russia's behalf.

"Recently we sent two North Korean prisoners of war the the Republic of Korea," Zelenskyy said, referring to South Korea by its formal name. "And these guys are not easy to capture alive. One of them, when he realized he was going to be taken prisoner, tried to kill himself." 

He said this spoke to how personnel in North Korea were trained and an attitude that "they must die, no matter what." 

"Do you really want to give such a force more time to learn how to wage war?" he asked. 

Zelenskyy said that North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un provided troops to Russia in a transactional way. He said he presumed North Korea's neighbors must have noticed what he said was the country's recently-improved missile capabilities. 

Zelenskyy alleged that Putin never seemed satisfied in his territorial ambitions and argued that this pattern applied beyond Ukraine.

He said that many around the world, in the south Caucasus, in Syria and across Africa "also know very well what Russian killers are." 

"After all of this, can you even imagine [Putin] without war?" Zelenskyy asked. "He is patient zero, the one from whom this idea of war keeps spreading further. And wherever it spreads, it brings only pain, instability, new risks and of course new crises."

The more space Putin has to operate, he argued, the more dangerous the world became for everyone else. 

"That is why patient zero must be stopped. He must be denied the space to act and the space to spread this evil further," Zelenskyy said. 

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy opened his speech not just with a message targeting Russia after more than four and a half years of open war, but also aimed squarely at the sensibilities of his host in New York.

"This morning on my way to New York, somewhere in the sky over the big and beautiful Atlantic Ocean, I read President Trump's post on Truth Social," Zelenskyy began. 

He relayed how Trump had written that Russia lost control of its diesel oil industry due to its war with Ukraine, an embarrassment for a UN Security Council member so proud of its oil industry.

"And this is true, Russia messed up," Zelenskyy said. "And the conclusion of the post is also right: this ridiculous and never-ending war with Ukraine must be ended. I do not know a single world leader who would say otherwise. I do not know anyone who is openly for this war: except one man." 

He said that Russia had been trying to carry out what he called Putin's "crazy orders" to seize eastern Ukraine for more than four years.

"Just this year, from January through August" the Russian army "lost" 248,964 people on the battlefield in Ukraine, Zelenskyy said. He later clarified that this constituted military casualties — so soldiers "killed and badly wounded" and said "we have video confirmation for every one of these losses." 

He said that amid these losses, Russia had only managed to capture "around 1,000 square kilometers (380 square miles) of our land this year," adding that "we have already liberated a significant part of it." He compared this to Russia's own vast territory spanning some 17 million square kilometers.

He said of the continued fighting: "It's madness, but they still keep going there to die, because that is what Putin wants." 

Palau's President Surangel Whipps began his address with thanks to outgoing UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who is nearing his term limit. 

"Your climate leadership, steadfast defense of multilateralism, international law, human dignity and the voices of the vulnerable carries a special meaning for small island developing states," said Whipps, who leads an archipelago of more than 500 islands but only around 17,600 people, which only completed its independence process in 1994. 

However, he also issued a stern criticism of the UN later in his address, arguing that there was one small island state whose sovereign rights the UN did not honor.

As one of just a dozen countries to have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, partly as a result of its historic and current ties to the US, Whipps also made the case for its inclusion in the UN. 

"In Palau we say we are a friend to all," he said. "We choose our partners based on our shared values of democracy, human rights and a rules-based international order: principles that underpin our friendship with Taiwan."

He described Taiwan as "a trusted partner that can contribute even more fully if given the space to do so." 

Taiwan is not a member of the United Nations and has been excluded from the organization since 1971 — when the Communist People's Republic of China took over the Chinese seat and the veto rights on the Security Council that came with it. This happened amid the normalization of ties between Beijing and much of the West, roughly two decades after the Chinese Communist Revolution. 

"The UN marginalizes Taiwan's 23 million people," Whipps said. "We stand with likeminded partners in calling for the reversal of misinterpretations of the rules and procedures that have constrained Taiwan's meaningful participation in this body." 

The leader of the island nation on the front lines of the battle against climate change and rising tides concluded with a traditional adage he said offered a lesson to the wider UN. 

"Be strong, and do not give up. The shore is near," Whipps said, translating the saying. "The promise of multilateralism is that even the smallest can be heard, and that the many voices — shaped by different histories and experiences — can move toward a common shore."