UNGA 81 Closes with Warnings on AI, Gaza and Iran as Guterres Delivers Final Address

The 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly concluded in New York on Monday, capping a week of speeches in which artificial intelligence, the Israel-Palestine conflict and the US-Israel war on Iran dominated the agenda. The annual gathering of world leaders, held against a backdrop of mounting geopolitical fragmentation, produced sharp exchanges over international law, unilateral military action and the future of global governance.

In his final address before leaving office, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres framed the world's trajectory around four defining challenges: AI, climate change, war and inequality. He argued that power — over force, money, energy, technology and rules — sits at the heart of each test, and that the UN Charter therefore matters more than at any point in recent memory. His remarks set a somber tone for a debate that repeatedly returned to the question of whether multilateral institutions can still constrain the actions of major powers.

Palestine emerged as the most emotionally charged issue of the session. With Israel's war on Gaza continuing despite a nominal ceasefire and settler violence escalating across the occupied West Bank, a string of leaders pressed the case for Palestinian sovereignty. French President Emmanuel Macron asked what credibility the international community retains if it stays passive in Gaza, warning that a proclaimed peace had not reopened humanitarian corridors for even a moment. "Must we stand by and watch this spectacle that shames us all?" he asked delegates.

Macron was joined by British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Canadian counterpart Mark Carney and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud in chairing a UNGA side meeting focused on Palestinian statehood — a project, the source notes, that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government is actively undermining through accelerated settlement construction and impunity for settlers.

Separately, the US-led Board of Peace unveiled a 66-project reconstruction blueprint for Gaza with proposed funding of $2.4bn. The plan notably excludes UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, stating it has no role in Gaza's future. Palestinian political analyst and playwright Ahmed Najar told Al Jazeera the decision dovetails with Israeli efforts to marginalize and ultimately dismantle the agency, removing it not only from Gaza's present but from its future.

Netanyahu's own address drew dozens of delegates out of the hall in protest. He used the podium to declare that Israeli forces would keep fighting Hamas and Iran, underscoring the isolation his government faced during the week's proceedings.

US President Donald Trump used his speech to cast himself as the leader who had delivered results while others merely talked of peace. He defended the January abduction of then-Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, claiming that hundreds of political prisoners had since been freed and that Caracas had signed the largest oil deal in history last month — covering 65 billion barrels, which he said would benefit both countries and help drive down global energy costs. "To the victor belong the spoils," he declared.

Turning to Iran, Trump reiterated that Tehran would never be permitted to obtain nuclear weapons. He claimed the 12-day war in July 2025 had obliterated Iran's nuclear program "beneath mountains of rubble" and that the ongoing US-Israel campaign had sunk 159 Iranian naval vessels. He then framed a stark choice: either a deal allowing Iran to rebuild as a greater nation, or the annihilation of the Islamic Republic — adding that he believed an agreement would come "right after the elections."

Iranian officials, by contrast, were in unusually high demand during the summit's sideline diplomacy. President Masoud Pezeshkian told delegates that Iran had only defended itself against attacks that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, scientists and children. He rejected any framework in which peaceful nuclear technology remains the preserve of a select few, insisting Iran would not surrender a right he described as inherently its own.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held meetings with counterparts from India, Qatar, Turkiye, Pakistan and Ukraine, among others, and sat down with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner for a four-hour session mediated by Qatar — a rare direct channel between Washington and Tehran amid active hostilities.

Artificial intelligence rounded out the major themes, with leaders urging a coordinated global approach as both investment and anxiety around the technology surge. Finnish President Alexander Stubb called AI the most consequential technology in human history, warning it will reshape science, the economy, politics, security and the essence of humanity itself. He argued that humans can and should remain in the driver's seat, and that while competition, cooperation or slowdown are all options, cooperation offers the best path forward.

Guterres and the European Union used their platforms to push for safety guardrails, though delegates remained divided on how far regulation should go. The split reflects a broader tension running through the week: leaders broadly agree on the risks, but not on who should hold the power to manage them.

Taken together, the general debate laid bare a UN straining under unilateral foreign policy and competing visions of world order. Calls for Security Council reform, appeals to uphold international law and warnings about unchecked technological change all pointed to the same underlying question — whether the institution can still shape a future that its own secretary-general says will be decided by contests over power.