UNGA wraps with AI, Iran war and Palestine at centre stage

The 81st United Nations General Assembly general debate closed Monday with artificial intelligence, Israel and Palestine, and the U.S.–Israel war on Iran dominating leaders’ speeches — and with Secretary-General António Guterres, in his final address before leaving office, warning that AI, climate, war and inequality will define the next era of power.

France’s Emmanuel Macron, Britain’s Andy Burnham, Canada’s Mark Carney and Saudi diplomats pressed Palestinian statehood while Netanyahu’s speech drew walkouts; a U.S.-led “Board of Peace” floated a US$2.4-billion Gaza rebuild plan that excludes UNRWA. Trump defended operations against Venezuela and Iran, said he expects an Iran deal only after U.S. midterms, and rejected international AI rules even as Guterres and the European Union demanded safety standards. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran had only defended itself; Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held Qatari-mediated talks with U.S. envoys on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, still deadlocked over nuclear terms.

Chinese President Xi Jinping skipped the UN hall despite being in Washington for a summit with Trump that produced little beyond a three-month trade-truce extension, sending Vice President Han Zheng instead. Finnish President Alexander Stubb called AI the most consequential technology in history and urged cooperation over a go-it-alone race — a contrast to Tuesday’s White House voluntary AI “constitution.”

For Canadian foreign policy, the week underscored the same bind Carney faces at home: keep pushing two-state diplomacy and AI guardrails while managing a neighbour that prefers unilateral force, voluntary tech rules and transactional trade pauses.