Trump heads to the UN with his focus on Iran and following his criticism of the United Nations

Washington.- The President of the United States, Donald Trump, begins this Monday an intense week of foreign policy that will take him back to the UN General Assembly, with the war in Iran as the focus of his agenda, a year after criticizing from that same forum the inability of the United Nations to resolve international conflicts.

Trump, who is traveling this very Monday to New York for Tuesday’s speech at the UN, also has several meetings scheduled with foreign leaders, including an unprecedented meeting with the interim president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, before returning to Washington to receive his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.

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During his address to the Assembly, Trump “will address the importance of ensuring that Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon, a demand that is not only from the United States but from the UN,” declared US Ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, in a telephone press conference.

Afterwards, he plans to meet with the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which brings together Washington’s allies in the Persian Gulf, to address the evolution of the war.

The conflict, launched in January by the United States and Israel, is about to reach seven months without having achieved its stated goal of overthrowing the Ayatollah regime. Furthermore, it threatens to take a toll on Republicans in the midterm elections in November, due to the high price of gasoline.

Despite the war, the Trump Administration approved the visas for the Iranian delegation, presumably led by President Masoud Pezeshkian, to travel to New York and participate in the UN High-Level Week.

Instead, the United States once again denied entry permission to the president of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, who will have to intervene via a pre-recorded video statement.

Diplomatic agenda in New York

Trump will begin his diplomatic agenda this Monday in New York with a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.

On Tuesday, in addition to giving his speech and addressing the situation in Iran, he plans to make the most of his day with a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at a time when Washington is trying to revive peace talks with Russia.

He will also meet for the first time with the interim Venezuelan leader, Delcy Rodríguez, in an unprecedented approach less than a year after the capture of Nicolás Maduro, who is imprisoned in a New York prison located a few kilometers from the UN headquarters.

Likewise, he will hold a first meeting with the British Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, and will meet again with the Japanese Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi.

Trump’s participation at the UN comes after the harsh speech he delivered last year before the General Assembly, when he denounced the organization’s ineffectiveness and accused it of failing to contribute to the resolution of international conflicts.

The president accused the UN of encouraging irregular migration, inventing the climate crisis, and even made ironic remarks about the technical glitches that occurred during his visit, such as a broken teleprompter and escalators that stopped working.

Likewise, last year it promoted the so-called Peace Council to follow up on the peace plan for the Gaza Strip, in an attempt to diminish the role of the United Nations in managing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Xi’s State Visit

Trump will return to the White House on Tuesday night to prepare for the arrival, on Wednesday, of Xi Jinping, who will begin a three-day state visit to the U.S. capital.

The meeting between Trump and Xi, the second this year following the one held in May in Beijing, seeks to steer a relationship burdened by trade tensions, the future of Taiwan, and the race for the development of artificial intelligence (AI).

Xi, who has avoided participating in the UN General Assembly despite his visits to the United States, will be hosted by Trump with a state dinner at the White House on Thursday.

On Friday, both will visit the United States National Archives, where the country’s Constitution and Declaration of Independence are preserved.