Trump UN visit reverberates as Ukraine, Iran poised to address General Assembly

The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday was largely marked by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s remarks on the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

President Donald Trump says he now believes that Ukraine can get back all of its territory from Russia following a meeting with Zelenskyy on Tuesday. The comments were welcomed by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that Russian President Vladimir Putin “only responds to strength.”

Meanwhile, a Kremlin spokesperson spoke out against Trump’s comments.

"As far as we understand, President Trump's statements were made after communicating with Zelenskyy and, apparently, under the influence of a vision set out by Zelenskyy. This vision contrasts sharply with our understanding of the current state of affairs,” a Kremlin spokesperson said.

Besides the developments regarding Ukraine and Russia, other notable remarks included Argentinean President Javier Milei touting Trump’s immigration policies, as well as Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaking following the regime change in the Middle Eastern nation in December.

Reuters and Fox News Digital’s Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump’s recent comments on the war in Ukraine sent shockwaves through the international community this week.

In a Tuesday post to Truth Social, he said, "I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and win all of Ukraine back in its original form."

"With time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, NATO, the original borders from where this war started, is very much an option," he added. "Why not?"

Earlier this year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s meeting with Trump went south when the president told Zelenskyy he "[didn’t] have the cards" to take on Russia, and repeatedly suggested Kyiv would need to make significant concessions to end the war.

"We're seeing that his approach to Russia's war on Ukraine has already changed dramatically," Yuriy Sak, former defense advisor to Zelenskyy, told Fox News Digital. "This change of his approach will hopefully translate into more unity in terms of the Western alliance and their support for Ukraine.”

Fox News Digital’s Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Saraa called for a “complete lifting of sanctions” during his United Nations General Assembly address.

“We are now proceeding toward electing representatives of the people in the legislative council. We restructured civil and military institutions, dissolving all previous formations through intensive diplomatic activities. Syria restored its international relations and forged regional and global partnerships and achieved the gradual lifting of most sanctions,” he said on Wednesday, as Bashar Assad’s regime collapsed in December.

“Syria today is rebuilding itself through established a new state, building institutions and laws that guarantee the rights of all, without exception, a land of ancient civilization and culture deserves to be a state of law protecting everyone, safeguarding rights, guaranteeing freedoms and fostering life to flourish while turning the page of a wretched past,” the leader added.

Fox News reported ahead of his address that this is the first time Syria spoke at the UNGA in decades.

"This marks the first participation in high-level meetings of a Syrian president at the United Nations General Assembly since 1967, so this is a very big deal," Natasha Hall, senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Fox News Digital.

"On such a historic occasion, what he will try to emphasize and underline is that this is a new day for Syria. They have overthrown the brutal dictatorship of the Assad regime. He will talk about the progress that's been made and what more progress needs to happen in terms of recognition and the lifting of U.N. sanctions to help Syria move forward," Hall added.

Fox News' Chris Massaro contributed to this report.

Argentinian President Javier Milei touted President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday.

“President Trump of the United States also understands that the time has come to reverse a dynamic, which is leading the United States towards a disaster. And we know the disaster in the United States is a global disaster,” he said.

“His unflinching and successful policy in terms of halting illegal immigration makes that conviction more than clear. He knows that he must do what's necessary, even though many may not like it before it's too late,” Milei added.

“Furthermore, he's undertaking a cleaning up of the institutional capture of the American state because he's being it's being infiltrated by left-wing factions that we're seeking to undermine any reform program that was necessary. Both I and Donald Trump know what we're doing in the face of these challenges,” he later added.

Trump endorsed Milei for re-election on Tuesday.

“He inherited a “total mess” with horrible Inflation caused by the previous Radical Left President (much like Crooked Joe Biden, the WORST President in the History our Nation), yet he has brought stability back to Argentina’s Economy, and lifted it to a new level of Prominence and Respect!” Trump posted to Truth Social.

Violet Affleck, the 19-year-old daughter of actors Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, delivered an impassioned speech at the U.N., calling for mask mandates and the human right to have filtered air. 

Violet spoke during the “Healthy Indoor Air: A Global Call to Action” at the UN Headquarters in New York on Tuesday. 

"We are told by leaders across the board that we are the future," said Violet, who was wearing a KN95 mask. "But when it comes to the ongoing pandemic, our present is being stolen right in front of our eyes." 

She blamed adults for “ignoring, downplaying and concealing both the prevalence of airborne transmission and the threat of long COVID." 

“I am terrified for the children who do not or soon will not know a world without debilitating pain and exhaustion, who cannot trust their bodies to build, explore and imagine and who will not know the potential of their own minds unfettered by the cognitive damage from a COVID-19 infection,” she said. 

Pointing to her mask, she said “we have access to a technology to prevent airborne disease” that millions around the world “would kill for, and we refuse to use it.” 

“We can and we must do that again,” Violet said. “We can recognize filtered air as a human right, intuitively as we recognize filtered water.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticized the effectiveness of international law in his address to the United Nations on Wednesday morning.

“If a nation wants peace, it still has to work on weapons. It’s sick. But that's the reality, not international law, not cooperation. Weapons decide who survives,” he said.

“Excellencies, you know perfectly well international law doesn't work fully unless you have powerful friends who are truly willing to stand up for it. And even that doesn't work without weapons. It's terrible, but without it, things would be even worse. There are no security guarantees except friends and weapons,” Zelenskyy continued.

“That's why we invest in defense for many nations. There is simply no other way left. Nations can speak about the pain from stages like this. But even during bloodshed, there's isn't a single international institution that can truly stop it. That's how weak these institutions have become,” he added.

The Ukrainian leader’s overall pitch to the United Nations General Assembly is to help stop the conflict with Russia before it’s too late, arguing it is cheaper to invest in ending the war then dealing with the risk of Ukraine losing.

“Stopping Russia now is cheaper than wondering who will be the first to create a simple drone carrying a nuclear warhead,” he said.

President Donald Trump and Zelenskyy met on Tuesday, with the president later sending out a Truth Social post indicating confidence that Ukraine can win back territory from Russia.

Nuclear threats from North Korea are top of mind for less public conversations at the United Nations General Assembly this week.

It’s an issue that is being "continuously brought up," according to a senior State Department official.

It was a particular concern in Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s meetings with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts and in President Donald Trump’s recent meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and Trump held two summits during the president’s first term, but there is no other summit on the horizon.

"Our policy remains a complete denuclearization of North Korea," the official said. Kim has said he’s only open to talks if the U.S. drops the denuclearization demand.

Kim has reportedly slammed the United States push for denuclearization.

"If the United States drops the absurd obsession with denuclearizing us and accepts reality, and wants genuine peaceful coexistence, there is no reason for us not to sit down with the United States," Kim was quoted as saying by state news agency KCNA.

Fox News Digital’s Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.

Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks during the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025, at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Iran’s president repeated Tehran’s claims that it does not seek to build a nuclear weapon as possible sanctions loom, and blamed Israel for disturbing stability in the region while speaking at the U.N. on Wednesday. 

President Masoud Pezeshkian spoke at the General Assembly, the first time he has spoken in a global forum since the 12-day Israel-Iran war over the summer that saw the assassination of many of the Islamic Republic’s highest military and political leaders.

“I hereby declare once more before this assembly that Iran has never sought and will never seek to build a nuclear bomb,” Pezeshkian said. “We do not seek nuclear weapons.”

He then blamed Israel as “those who disturb the peace and stability in the region,” while claiming “Iran is the one being punished for those actions” by Israel. 

The president also criticized the Britain, German and France’s efforts to trigger the so-called “snapback” mechanism to reinstate sanctions — barring a last-minute accord — over Iran’s failure to comply with conditions of a 2015 nuclear deal aimed at preventing Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. 

He said that the countries — known as the E3 — have operated in “bad faith” for years to dictate Iranian compliance with a deal that the U.S. abandoned in 2018. 

“They falsely presented themselves as parties of good standing to the agreement and they disparaged Iran’s sincere efforts as insufficient,” he said. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Hillary Clinton speaks onstage during the Common Sense Summit on Kids and Families 2025 on March 24, 2025 in San Francisco, California. (Getty Images)

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Wednesday that she “welcomed what the president said yesterday” on the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, and Trump then posted to Truth Social afterward that Ukraine “is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form.”

“He only responds to strength,” Clinton said of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“He poses a clear and present danger to all of Europe, and therefore, to the United States,” Clinton added.

Clinton previously said she would nominate Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize if he could broker a peace deal between the two countries that would give Ukraine back all of its territory occupied by the Russians.

"You know, look, if we could pull that off, if President Trump were the architect of that, I'd nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize," she said during an interview on the “Raging Moderates” podcast last month.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made his pitch to the United Nations to continue international support for his country in the war with Russia.

“Stopping this war now and with it, the global arms race, is cheaper than building underground kindergartens or massive bunkers for critical infrastructure later. Stopping Putin now is cheaper than trying to protect every port and every ship from terrorists with sea drones,” he said.

“Stopping Russia now is cheaper than wondering who will be the first to create a simple drone carrying a nuclear warhead. So we must use everything we have together to force the aggressor to stop. And only then do we have a real chance that these arms race will not end in catastrophe for all of us,” Zelenskyy added.

The Ukrainian leader noted that he had a “good meeting” with President Donald Trump on Tuesday, following his remarks to the United Nations. Trump later posted to Truth Social indicated that he believes Ukraine “is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form” with the backing of the European Union.

“But in the end, peace depends on all of us, on the United Nations. So don't stay silent while Russia keeps dragging this war on. Please speak out and condemn it. Please join us in defending life and international law and order. People are waiting for action,” the Ukrainian leader concluded.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived at the United Nations General Assembly just before 9 a.m. on Wednesday ahead of his address.

Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump met at the UN on Tuesday, following the Trump’s remarks to the body. The meeting seemed to be a major development for the role of the United States in the war in Ukraine.

“After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation and, after seeing the Economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form,” Trump posted to Truth Social on Tuesday night, saying Russia has been “fighting aimlessly” for years.

“Putin and Russia are in BIG Economic trouble, and this is the time for Ukraine to act. In any event, I wish both Countries well. We will continue to supply weapons to NATO for NATO to do what they want with them. Good luck to all!” Trump later added.

President Donald Trump’s United Nations General Assembly address on Tuesday morning drew some laughs, while world leaders squirmed as he took aim at the body’s priorities such as climate change, Ukraine, refugee resettlement and Palestinian statehood.

"What is the purpose of the United Nations?" Trump asked, after recounting how he — not the U.N. — had ended seven wars, quipping that he never got a phone call from the body asking for help.

Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže told Fox News Digital world leaders took note of Trump’s blunt style and sweeping agenda. She emphasized that his remarks spanned "a whole set of international issues," from Ukraine to Gaza.

She highlighted his criticism of Russia, saying it was clear he wanted the war to end and was openly disappointed in President Vladimir Putin. When Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president said he agreed that NATO countries should be allowed to shoot down Russian aircraft in their airspace."

As for U.N. reform and criticizing and guiding it through financial crises and endemic dysfunctionality, surprisingly he left a vacuum instead of a narrative," former U.S. diplomat Hugh Dugan said. "He neither validated nor criticized the U.N. as expected, except pointing out the obvious views of its administrative and diplomatic passivity shared widely."

Fox News Digital's Morgan Phillips and Efrat Lachter contributed to this report.

When President Donald Trump took the stage at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the teleprompter didn’t work. But no matter — he was about to deliver a series of points he knew well, and one that shattered the typical U.N. script.

At times, world leaders shifted uncomfortably in their seats, particularly when he charged that the U.N. had failed to help the U.S. end wars and joked that all he ever got from the institution was being stuck on an escalator and a broken teleprompter. Yet in his trademark style, Trump also drew laughter from the room, managing to be both affable and scolding at the same time.

"What is the purpose of the United Nations?" Trump asked, after recounting how he — not the U.N. — had ended seven wars. 

From there, he launched into a wide-ranging address that touched on every one of the U.N.’s modern priorities — climate change, Ukraine, refugee resettlement and Palestinian statehood—and rejected each of them outright, unsettling many in attendance.

Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže told Fox News Digital world leaders took note of Trump’s blunt style and sweeping agenda. She emphasized that his remarks spanned "a whole set of international issues," from Ukraine to Gaza. She highlighted his criticism of Russia, saying it was clear he wanted the war to end and was openly disappointed in President Vladimir Putin.

Former U.S. diplomat Hugh Dugan noted that while Trump hammered the U.N., he did not press the case for reform as forcefully as expected. 

"As for U.N. reform and criticizing and guiding it through financial crises and endemic dysfunctionality, surprisingly he left a vacuum instead of a narrative," Dugan said. "He neither validated nor criticized the U.N. as expected, except pointing out the obvious views of its administrative and diplomatic passivity shared widely."

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Morgan Phillips

This is an excerpt from an opinion article by former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

For decades, Israel has tried, sometimes against our better instincts, to work with the United Nations. I have personally sat in numerous meetings with U.N. officials, painstakingly negotiating frameworks to ensure humanitarian aid reached civilians in Gaza. I oversaw budgets, coordinated secure passageways for convoys, and approved daily discussions with U.N. representatives about food, medicine, and fuel. We made these efforts not for Hamas’s sake, but because, as Israelis, we recognize the sanctity of human life, even beyond our own side of the battlefield.

Despite these efforts, the very organization we enabled to deliver aid has repeatedly turned against us. Instead of acknowledging Israel’s unprecedented humanitarian measures, the U.N. issued routine condemnations. Their resolutions read less like acts of diplomacy and more like indictments prepared in advance. This is not neutrality. It is hostility, dressed in the language of international law.

It is difficult to ignore the hypocrisy.  Iran, North Korea, and Syria hold seats on U.N. councils, while Israel is dragged before panels that masquerade as courts of justice. At the same time, another arm of the United Nations, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), operates facilities in Gaza. These buildings were built for education and healthcare, but instead have become arsenals for Hamas rockets and serve as infrastructure for terror.

The fact that U.N.-run schools and clinics have been weaponized in this way is almost always overlooked by those so quick to condemn Israel. The Human Rights Council spends more time singling out Israel than addressing any other crisis on the planet. This is not a coincidence. It is the result of an institution co-opted by regimes determined to undermine the Jewish state.

Last week, the U.N. released a report that accuses me personally, by name, of war crimes and, by extension, accuses Israel of genocide.

I am proud to have stood in the position to defend the State of Israel. Given the choice, I would do so again without hesitation. As minister of defense, I led the IDF as it set standards for proportionality and distinction [not] seen in any modern military conflict. No other army has put greater effort into warning civilians in every possible way: leaflets, calls, texts, and warning shots, before targeting terrorist infrastructure. These are not the acts of an indifferent military; they are the actions of a nation of conscience and responsibility.

Hamas, in contrast, hides rockets in schools, launches missiles from hospital courtyards, forces civilians to serve as shields, and still holds dozens of Israelis hostage. It manufactures civilian suffering and uses it for propaganda.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called for the firing and investigation of those responsible for a stalled escalator that carried President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump at Tuesday’s United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

The escalator malfunction occurred before Trump addressed the General Assembly in New York, and he and the first lady were forced to walk up the stalled machine before making his remarks to other world leaders. 

"If someone at the UN intentionally stopped the escalator as the President and First Lady were stepping on, they need to be fired and investigated immediately," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X in response to a Times of London article published Sunday. 

The Times reported that U.N. staffers joked that they may switch off the escalator.

When asked on "Jesse Watters Primetime" Tuesday evening whether the malfunction might be an act of sabotage, Leavitt was blunt.

"That's definitely what it appears to be to me," she said. "There's was some concerning reporting over the weekend from the London Times… that U.N. globalist staffers were basically plotting to set up the President of the United States."

Leavitt said the U.S. Secret Service was looking into the matter. 

"If we find that these were U.N. staffers who were purposefully trying to trip up, literally trip up the president and the first lady of the United States, well there better be accountability for those people," she added. 

A United Nations spokesperson later told Fox News that someone from the U.S. delegation or security detail ran up the escalator and then back down again before the Trumps were off the escalator. The act of running down the up-moving escalator triggered an alarm, halting it.

Once a member of al Qaeda and the Islamic State and now leading Syria’s fragile transition since toppling the Bashar Assad regime,  Ahmed al-Sharaa is ready to take to the global center stage at the United Nations General Assembly Wednesday and make his case for a new path forward for his war-torn nation.

"This marks the first participation in high-level meetings of a Syrian president at the United Nations General Assembly since 1967, so this is a very big deal," Natasha Hall, senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Fox News Digital.

"On such a historic occasion, what he will try to emphasize and underline is that this is a new day for Syria. They have overthrown the brutal dictatorship of the Assad regime. He will talk about the progress that's been made and what more progress needs to happen in terms of recognition and the lifting of U.N. sanctions to help Syria move forward," Hall added.

A high-ranking Syrian government official confirmed to Fox News Digital that al-Sharaa will use the opportunity at the U.N. to present Syria’s vision for stability, reconstruction, and reconciliation.

"The most important issues he will raise include the need to lift all forms of unilateral sanctions that continue to hinder Syria’s recovery, the importance of combating terrorism in all its forms, the return of displaced Syrians and refugees, and the advancement of a genuinely inclusive political process rooted in the will of the Syrian people," the Syrian official said.

Al-Sharaa, who led the Islamist rebel group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham  (HTS) to victory over Assad, ditched his military fatigues for a Western-style suit and has been on a charm offensive, hosting European and Western diplomats and politicians in hopes of bringing Syria out from its international pariah status.

The new Syrian leader received an unprecedented endorsement from President Donald Trump when the two met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in May. 

Though the United Nations’ Charter claims to support fundamental human rights and aims for “larger freedom” in a world liberated from the scourge of war, most of its 193 Member States are not fully democratic.

According to research conducted by Freedom House, which ranks the level of civil liberties and political freedom in countries around the world, only 84 U.N. member states, or 43.5%, are considered “free.”

President Donald Trump is also concerned that U.N. entities “act contrary to the interests of the United States while attacking our allies.” Trump announced in a February executive order that he would reevaluate commitments to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and U.N. Human Rights Council.

In July, the administration said that it would depart from UNESCO. A White House spokesperson explained that the organization “supports woke, divisive cultural and social causes that are totally out-of-step with the common-sense policies that Americans voted for.”

The United Nations has a long history of anti-Israel bias, but since Hamas terrorists attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, critics charge the world body has gotten worse.

Employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) were found to have participated in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese and members of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory (COI) have been accused of propelling anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and releasing biased attacks on Israel.

Even the U.N. Department of Global Communications, the U.N. media support wing, has come under fire for spreading anti-Israel hate.

Director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and president of Human Rights Voices Anne Bayefsky told Fox News Digital in April that the U.N. has become an "assembly line of lies, hate speech, incitement to violence, and antisemitism."

Despite the criticism, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pushed for the continuation of UNRWA’s work and has refused to censure those voices including Francesca Albanese.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro used his UN General Assembly speech Tuesday to blast President Donald Trump’s anti-drug policy as violent, ineffective, and rooted in domination rather than public health.

Petro argued that Colombia has achieved record cocaine seizures and extraditions under his government, yet Trump “decertified” the country, a move he called unjust and politically motivated.

Petro denounced U.S. missile strikes in the Caribbean that he said killed unarmed Colombian youths under the false pretense of stopping traffickers. He insisted his approach—voluntary crop substitution and anti-trafficker enforcement—was more humane and effective than militarized crackdowns.

He also alleged that Trump’s foreign policy toward Colombia, Venezuela, and the Caribbean was influenced by Colombian politicians connected to drug mafias and paramilitaries.

“This is why I speak to you as a decertified president — I’ve been decertified by President Trump without him having any right to do this, a human right or a divine right or any sensible reason,” Petro said.

He continued, saying the anti-drug policy was not meant to stop cocaine going into the U.S.

“The anti-drug policy is to dominate the people of the south as a whole,” Petro said. “You shouldn’t look at the drugs. You should look at who has the power and who dominates.”