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At UN for Last Time, Biden Seeks to Calm Mideast Tension
US President Joe Biden addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York, US, Sept. 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Mike Segar
US President Joe Biden addressed world leaders at the United Nations for the final time on Tuesday, declaring that Russia’s war in Ukraine has failed and that a diplomatic solution between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorist group was still possible.
With four months left in office, Biden stepped up to the green-marbled lectern at the UN General Assembly with wars in Ukraine, the Gaza Strip, and Sudan still raging and likely to outlast his presidency, which ends in January.
He sought to calm tensions as the nearly year-long war between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip now threatens to engulf Lebanon — where Israel targeted more than a thousand Hezbollah targets on Monday.
“Full scale war is not in anyone’s interest, even if situation has escalated, a diplomatic solution is still possible,” he told the 193-member UN General Assembly.
To a round of applause, Biden called on Israel and Hamas to finalize the terms of a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal put forward by the US, Qatar, and Egypt.
Biden‘s presidency has also been dominated by Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was in the assembly hall to hear Biden speak and emphasize US support for his country.
“The good news is Putin’s war has failed at his core aim. He set out to destroy Ukraine, but Ukraine is still free,” said Biden, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We cannot grow weary, we cannot look away, and we will not let up on our support for Ukraine, not until Ukraine wins with a just, durable peace,” he said.
Russia controls just under a fifth of Ukraine, including about 80 percent of the Donbas area. Russian forces have begun storming the eastern Ukrainian town of Vuhledar, a stronghold that has resisted Russian attack since the beginning of the war, according to Russian war bloggers and state media.
Biden is due to hear from Zelenskiy about a new Ukrainian peace plan when they meet in Washington on Thursday. A US official said the plan is probably much like previous plans calling for more weaponry and support for Ukraine’s fight.
Countering China and Iran, which backs both Hamas and Hezbollah, have consumed major chunks of the president’s time.
Biden said on Tuesday that progress toward peace in the Middle East would put the world in a stronger position to deal “with the ongoing threat posed by Iran.”
“Together we must deny oxygen to its terrorist proxies … and ensure that Iran will never, ever obtain a nuclear weapon,” he said.
He said the United States was seeking to responsibly manage competition with China so it does not veer into conflict.
“We stand ready to cooperate on urgent challenges,” he said. “We recently resumed cooperation with China to stop the flow of deadly synthetic narcotics. I appreciate the collaboration. It matters for the people of my country and many others around the world.”
Biden also had strong words for the leaders of Sudan’s warring parties: “End this war now.”
CHALLENGES FOR NEXT US PRESIDENT
Biden‘s UN speech is the centerpiece event of a two-day visit to New York that includes a climate speech later on Tuesday and a meeting on Wednesday with To Lam, the president of Vietnam.
Biden has been eager to deepen relations with the strategic Southeast Asian country and manufacturing hub to counter Russia and China, with which Vietnam also retains ties.
Ukraine and Russia, Gaza, Iran, and China all figure to linger on as challenges for the next president, whether Biden‘s successor is his vice president, Kamala Harris, a Democrat, or former President Donald Trump, a Republican.
Harris’ approach to foreign policy is much like Biden‘s, although she has struck a tougher tone on the Palestinian deaths and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Trump, professing more isolationist tendencies, has little enthusiasm for supporting Ukraine’s battle to expel Russian invaders and is a firm backer of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has frayed relations with Biden.
Biden has expressed support for Israel in its drive to eliminate Hamas terrorists from Gaza but so far has been unsuccessful in his bid to negotiate a ceasefire-for-hostages deal and no breakthrough is in sight.
Under Biden‘s leadership, the United States has funneled millions of dollars in American weaponry to Ukraine and rallied NATO solidarity behind Kyiv. But the conflict is largely at a stalemate with Russia hanging on to parts of eastern Ukraine it seized early in the war.
The post At UN for Last Time, Biden Seeks to Calm Mideast Tension first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.