As Mideast leaders gather in New York, regional wars top the agenda, and other Mideast developments

Leaders from across the Middle East are gathering this week for the United Nations General Assembly in New York at a time when three years of wars across the region show no signs of letting up.

The wars between the U.S. and Iran, the latest fighting in Yemen and the ongoing Israeli military operations in Gaza and Lebanon are all expected to be high on the agenda. President Donald Trump, who has struggled to find an endgame to the Iran war after more than six months, is set to meet with Gulf Arab leaders but is not expected to meet with Israel's prime minister.

Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Tuesday. Full coverage is available here.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian struck a defiant note as he boarded a plane from Tehran to New York for the General Assembly, accusing the U.S. of doing “everything they can to block every possible route in order to force our nation and our people to surrender, because they were unable to do that through military means.” Pezeshkian added that Iran is wary of another round of talks, having twice been attacked by the U.S. and Israel during active negotiations.

A regional body of Arab Gulf states on Tuesday called for Iran and its allied groups to cease their attacks on Arab Gulf states and allow free transit through two crucial maritime checkpoints, according to a statement from the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Jasem Mohamed AlBudaiwi, head of the Gulf Cooperation Council, said disrupting traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait has rattled oil markets and supply chains across the world, which has “triggered worldwide fallout.”

Iran has said it attacked U.S. bases in the region as part of its response to the U.S.-Israeli strikes on the Islamic Republic.

AlBudaiwi made the comments in a meeting with Swiss officials on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. Trump is expected to meet the Gulf Cooperation Council on Tuesday in New York.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who launched the Iran war along with the U.S. on Feb. 28, is also heading to New York for a brief trip, but is not expected to meet with Trump.

Netanyahu will be in New York for less than 24 hours, during which time Trump is scheduled to be in Washington for a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Netanyahu is up for reelection at the end of October. In the past, he has boasted of his close ties with Trump, but that relationship appears to be deteriorating as the war drags on. A meeting with Trump could have bolstered Netanyahu’s image ahead of the elections. Netanyahu’s speech at the U.N. on Thursday is expected to garner protests, both inside and outside of the U.N.

New York mayor Zohran Mamdani reiterated calls in media interviews for the federal government to arrest Netanyahu while he is visiting New York. An arrest is unlikely since the U.S. and Israel are not members of the International Criminal Court and Trump has put sanctions on court staffers in a campaign to dismantle it.

The Houthi-run Health Ministry in Yemen said at least seven people, including two children and a woman, were killed in airstrikes Tuesday in the port city of Mokha, which the Iranian-backed Houthis captured earlier this month. The strikes came hours after the internationally recognized government accused the Houthis of attacking an open public market in the province of Lahj, close to the epicenter of fighting on the western coast.

Fighting between the Houthis and Saudi-backed forces has reignited Yemen's civil war and led to attacks on Saudi Arabia.

The foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. called on Iran to stop supporting the Houthis.

“Their reprehensible actions constitute a dangerous pattern of escalation that risks further exacerbating the conflict, undermining international trade and creating global economic instability,” the ministers said ahead of the UNGA.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed Baghdad’s efforts to disarm the country’s network of militias on the sidelines of the General Assembly.

Al-Zaidi’s office said Tuesday that he had “reiterated the government’s determination to fulfill its sovereign responsibilities and move forward with measures to ensure that all arms remain under state authority.”

The U.S. State Department said that Rubio and al-Zaidi had “agreed on the importance of Iraq dismantling terrorist militias, preventing attacks from Iraqi territory, and fully exercising its sovereignty.”

Al-Zaidi initially set Sept. 30 as the deadline for non-state groups to disarm, but has since pushed the deadline after some of the country’s most powerful Iran-backed militias announced they have no plans to give up their arms.

This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at his Likud party New Year event in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

The flag of the United Nations flies during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the UN headquarters, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)

A displaced Yemeni cooks at Al-Firdaws camp in Ras Imran, on the western outskirts of Aden, Yemen, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdulnasser Alseddik)

People pose as they arrive for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the UN headquarters, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — With wars raging,temperatures rising and artificial intelligence encroaching, leaders from across the planet converge at the United Nations on Tuesday to address each other and the world, airing their hopes, plans and grievances as the world body’s chief addresses them for the final time.

The annual high-level gathering at the U.N. General Assembly will be consumed with wars in Iran, Gaza, Ukraine,Sudan, Congo and Myanmar and a persisting question: Can the leaders do anything to end them?

And what can they do about the relentless rise of global warming threatening the future of the planet, the growing inequalities within and among nations, and shocks to the global economy as blocked shipping routes and supply chains increase the cost of living and slow growth?

The future of the United Nations will also definitely be on the agenda. At 81, its powers are still the victorious nations from World War II, not the 21st century’s major global players. The U.N.’s 193 member nations have agreed to a wide-ranging reform package that includes updating key institutions such as the powerful U.N. Security Council, where the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France hold inordinate sway because of their veto power. Reform, however, is easier said than implemented.

Behind the scenes, there will be speculation about who will lead the United Nations next. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ second five-year term ends Dec. 31 and no clear successor has emerged.

There is still no question that the U.N. remains the key gathering place for its 193 member nations and their leaders. Some 130 heads of state and government are expected to speak at the General Assembly starting Tuesday along with dozens of ministers.

Among the headliners: U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emanuel Macron. Both will speak Tuesday after Guterres’ opening “state of the world” address. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian speak Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — whom New York Mayor Zoran Mamdani wanted arrested for his treatment of Palestinians in Gaza until he learned he has no such authority — will address the assembly on Thursday. For a second year, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas won’t be coming to the U.N. because the U.S. has refused to give him a visa. He will nonetheless address the assembly by video the same day.

The United States, under its agreement with the U.N. to host the organization, is required to allow diplomats from all member nations to attend meetings.

Equally telling is who else isn’t coming. China’s President Xi Jinping is meeting Trump in Washington on Wednesday, yet he is skipping — some diplomats say snubbing — the U.N. gathering and sending a vice president instead. Russian President Vladimir Putin isn’t coming either, and Indian President Narendra Modi has backed out.

France's U.N. ambassador, Jerome Bonnafont, said it is “extremely critical” for world leaders this week to support the U.N. as the place where the world’s nations meet — especially at a time of such polarization.

“We believe in multilateralism," he said, "and we believe that the high-level week is the occasion for countries in the world to reaffirm that they prefer cooperation and dialogue to confrontation.”

There is no doubt it’s been a tough year for the world body. It has been pushed to the sidelines when it comes to its key responsibility of ensuring international peace and security and trying to end major conflicts in the Mideast and Ukraine. The U.S. failure to pay billions of dollars in outstanding arrears has left the organization’s finances in rocky shape.

Former U.N. deputy secretary-general Mark Malloch-Brown, a United Nations Foundation board member, said, “While the world still trusts the U.N., the global public is eager for change."

The future of artificial intelligence has pushed to the forefront of global concerns, with its speeding advances and the dawning recognition that there are no industry controls, let alone any global guardrails for a technology that has many advantages but also many disadvantages and unknowns.

Days before the global gathering, leaders of three major AI companies warned about the technology getting out of human control and called for a pause, but Trump dismissed their concerns as “a hoax,” and urged continued advances to keep the U.S. ahead of China.

The U.N. Security Council added a high-level meeting on AI to its agenda on Wednesday afternoon, a sign of the growing apprehension and need to address the issue. It was already slated to hold a high-level meeting on Ukraine with Zelenskyy on Wednesday morning.

For the U.N. chief, this will be his last assembly meeting with global leaders. He previewed his speech last week, telling U.N. reporters that power is shifting in “an era of deep uncertainty."

“At a time when the world faces three existential threats," he said, “international cooperation is more necessary than ever.”

Edith M. Lederer has covered international affairs for The Associated Press for more than a half century.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen attends the Partnership for Multilateralism Summit on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the UN headquarters, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)

The flag of the United Nations flies during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the UN headquarters, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)

People pose as they arrive for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the UN headquarters, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)

The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the United Nations headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/David R Martin)