World leaders seek to restore trust, transform UN at 81st session

NEW YORK, USA – Word leaders at the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly raised critical issues that threaten the effectiveness of United Nations under the theme: “Restoring trust, managing transformation: A United Nations that delivers for all.”

His Majesty King Mswati III who takes the floor on Wednesday, was amongst the throngs of world leaders who attended the 81st Session of the United Nations otherwise known as UNGA.

Outgoing UN Secretary General Antonio Gutteres delivered a wide-ranging speech that framed the world most pressing crisis as not just isolated problems, but different expressions of the same underlying struggle over how power is exercised and by whom.

Gutteres said the greatest power is not the power to dominate, when delivering his report, he said it is the power to build a future that works for everyone.

The UN SG described the past decade of his reign as of eroding international norms – from civilians targeted in war, and humanitarian workers killed, to international law “cast aside” and fraying trust between nations.

He said power itself is being fundamentally reshaped in three ways: Emergence of new State powers; Significant transfer of authority from governments to private corporations and individuals and the growing role of AI and autonomous weapons in decisions once reserved for humans.

“The faultlines in our world are widening,” he said. “Cracks have become canyons.”

Gutteres said rather than accepting fragmentation as inevitable, he called for galvanizing cooperation and a truly global network built on interdependence and shared rules while warning against sliding into rival blocs with separate economic and security systems, a scenario he has termed in recent years the Great Fracture.

Meanwhile, the Emir of Qatar Tarim bin Hamad Al Thani said the current crisis in the Gulf should come as no surprise to anyone.

“It is the cumulative result of years of postponing crisis management through temporary solutions and unrealistic policies,” he said of the war between the US and Iran which has sprawled to impact a series of Gulf states.

“At the heart of the dangerous situation we are witnessing lies an absence of a regional system of collective security. One that respects the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of states. One that promotes the peaceful settlement of disputes and the non-interference in the internal affairs of states,” Al Thani said.

He said Qatar had recently called “from this very podium” for such a system and was now reiterating the appeal “after recent events have demonstrated the urgent need for it.”

Iran has sometimes been accused of strucking targets in neighboring Gulf countries with close ties to the US.

Al Thani said that the restrictions on passage through the Strait of Hormuz amounted to the “lifelines of the global economy” being turned into bargaining chips, “with people on every continent bearing the cost, despite being far removed from the causes of the conflict.”

The 46-year-old head of state said this was driving up prices not just for fuel but also for core other goods like food and medicine.

United States President Donald Trump said America will never allow Iran, whom he described as the bully of the Gulf states to own a nuclear weapons.

“They were the, but they are the bully no more,” Trump said, adding that he had given Tehran numerous opportunities to drop its nuclear program and stop its support of militant groups across the regions.

“They refused, which was a big mistake.”

The US leader mentioned both the September 11 attacks and the October 7 attacks in Israel, the latter being carried out by Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas.

“Just imagine such a vile regime was able to carry out terror attacks from behind a nuclear shield,” Trump said.

Trump concluded by saying he was facing a choice of whether to allow Iran regrow or to “annihilate” it.

“Freedom was not a gift that Americans won easily after 250 years,” he said. “And it is not one that we will ever, ever surrender.”

He went on to tell of George Washington ordering the Declaration of Independence to be read to his troops in New York in 1776 as a British fleet approached the shore.

Trump said that the first Americans “knew that it was not enough merely to believe in great principles, we must also have the will and the courage and the strength to defend them.”

He said this was the challenge “for every nation in this room,” saying they should “go forward strong against the enemies of all humanity” and “refuse to shrink from” their duties to their people.

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