UN General Assembly Day 2: Syria’s al-Sharaa urges end to all sanctions

The second day of the United Nations General Assembly‘s annual General Debate is now under way.
Wednesday’s slate of speakers included Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian, Argentina’s Javier Milei and Syria’s interim
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Here are the latest updates from the UN General Assembly debate:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appealed for more weapons support to combat Russia’s invasion as he warned of a new era of inexpensive drone warfare.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has used his speech to maintain that Tehran “has never sought and will never seek” to build a nuclear bomb as a deadline approaches that would see renewed UN sanctions over its nuclear programme.
Kenyan President William Ruto has called for better representation of Africa at the UN, including a permanent seat on the Security Council.
Interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has promised to start a new chapter in his homeland and appealed for the full lifting of sanctions as well as an end to Israeli strikes in his country.
“The old joke goes that if the UN didn’t exist, we would invent it, right?” he said. “We need a place where you have all of the leaders of the world come together.”

But, he added, the criticism is not unwarranted.

“There are very good reasons to criticise the UN, to see it as stymied, to see especially the Security Council as a place where major decisions are running at crosscurrents because of great powers being unable to agree with each other,” he explained.

“You can criticise the UN for not upholding basic rule of law, for creating a sense of impunity. All of that is true, but the answer always remains – we go through this every year – that the only way forward is to reform it.”

Kenya’s Ruto calls for Security Council permanent membership for Africa
Kenyan President William Ruto has been among those calling for the expansion of the UN Security Council.

It’s a perennial appeal, since the council only has five permanent members, all of which hail from Europe, Asia or North America.

Nevertheless, the panel has not added any permanent members from Africa or South America.
The general debate takes a pause
Seventeen speakers down and 19 more to go!

Wednesday’s UNGA general debate has hit a halfway point after hearing remarks from world leaders, including Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Argentina’s Javier Milei and Syria’s Ahmed al-Sharaa.

The meeting will briefly adjourn and resume with remarks from the president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader.
After Trump’s U-turn, can Ukraine restore its pre-war borders?
Yesterday, US President Trump prompted surprise when he announced he could envision Ukraine regaining all its territory from Russia, after saying for months that Ukraine would have to sacrifice occupied land in exchange for peace.

Experts tell Al Jazeera that, while Trump’s new position on Ukraine is rhetorically significant, it is unlikely to result in concrete change.

“They’re a rhetoric formula Trump uses to express sympathies, positive emotions towards Ukraine,” said Volodymyr Fesenko, the head of the Kyiv-based think tank Penta. “They’re a signal, a way of pressuring Putin in a rhetoric way so far.”

But Fesenko warned that Trump’s shift in policy towards Ukraine did not signal an overall shift in his sympathies.

“Trump doesn’t want Ukraine to win the war. He wants the war to be over,” Fesenko added. “His goals didn’t change. That’s why he sends signals to Putin.”leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.