Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Situation Report. It’s Thursday, which means we are back to our regular weekly programming, but we have more news from another busy day at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York City.
Here’s what’s on tap for the day: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers his UNGA speech, U. S. President Donald Trump hosts Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington, and Denmark’s military intelligence service issues a chilling warning about Russia.
Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Situation Report. It’s Thursday, which means we are back to our regular weekly programming, but we have more news from another busy day at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York City.
Here’s what’s on tap for the day: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers his UNGA speech, U. S. President Donald Trump hosts Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington, and Denmark’s military intelligence service issues a chilling warning about Russia.
For the second year in a row, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced a mass walkout at UNGA. As Netanyahu took the stage for his speech on Thursday, more than 100 U. N. delegates left their seats and exited the assembly hall.
“If there are any other moral cowards who haven’t yet left this hall, please do so now,” Netanyahu began.
He then referenced his first-ever speech to the gathering 14 years ago, when he said the world must prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. “That’s exactly what we did,” he said. “It was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever had to make as prime minister, because if I hadn’t done it, we’d all be dead.” Netanyahu characterized Israel’s actions against Iran as “defending many of the countries whose delegates just left this room.”
He also recounted the death of his older brother Yonatan, who was killed in action during Operation Entebbe, a 1976 mission by Israel Defense Forces commandos to rescue Jewish hostages who were being held in Entebbe, Uganda, after their flight from Tel Aviv to Paris was hijacked by Palestinian and German militants.
Netanyahu referenced his brother several times throughout the speech, but he repeatedly came back to one line he said his brother told him: “We’re going to win, because we have no other choice.”
Defender. The Israeli prime minister once again defended Israel’s brutal war in Gaza, calling the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack that prompted it the “darkest day in Israel’s history” and praising Israel’s military response. “We didn’t collapse. Instead, we rose and fought like lions,” he said, outlining the “seven fronts” where the Israeli military is now fighting in the region, including in Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. “Do you know any other country the size of New Jersey capable of fighting a seven-front war?” he asked.
Like many world leaders, Netanyahu’s speeches at the multilateral institution—which Israel increasingly expresses great disdain for—are always aimed at least partly at his domestic audience, but that was even more so the case this year, with just over a month to go before Israelis head to the polls for a referendum on his government.
In his remarks, he presented himself as a defender of Israel. “We have no other country. It is a privilege to defend it,” he said, telling all the Israelis killed in the war that “your sacrifice will not be in vain.” And he praised Trump, saying Israel had “no greater partner” and that the two leaders launched the war against Iran “not only to protect ourselves, but to save civilization.”
‘Mr. Mamdani.’ Yet in addition to denouncing Iran, Hamas, and other longtime enemies, Netanyahu also chose to focus some of his ire on New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has called Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide and said he would have the New York Police Department arrest Netanyahu when he visited the city—only to later conclude that was not legally possible.
“Mr. Mamdani, since you were elected mayor of this city, many Jews no longer feel safe in New York,” Netanyahu said, citing threats against Jews in New York “on the way to the synagogue.”
“Israel didn’t commit genocide, Israel prevented genocide,” he added. “That’s exactly what Mr. Mamdani’s Hamas buddies would have done to us.”
‘A malicious colonial scheme.’ Earlier in the day, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas used his speech—like Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian the day before—to criticize both the United States and Israel. Abbas addressed the gathering virtually for the second consecutive year, saying in prepared video remarks that the Palestinian delegation was denied U. S. visas again.
“We reject these unlawful punitive measures, and we reject the accusations and justifications on which they were based,” he said. “Denying the Palestinian delegation access to the U. N. headquarters is a violation of the United States’ obligation as the host country,” he added.
Abbas also criticized Israel’s continued strikes in Gaza, which he called “a genocidal war that has created an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe” as well as the actions of Israeli settlers in the West Bank. “The danger is no longer limited to undermining the two-state solution and preventing the realization of the Palestinian state. It has now come to threaten the very life and existence of the Palestinian people on their homeland,” he said. “What is taking place in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem are not isolated incidents, but rather a malicious colonial scheme aimed at making the lives of Palestinians more difficult in their homeland and forcing them to leave it.”
Eight U. S. Navy personnel who were part of the USS Abraham Lincoln’s strike group attempted suicide during the carrier’s 286 continuous days at sea, according to a letter by acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao to Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on Tuesday. The letter was in response to congressional concerns about the mental health of the crew, who set a modern record for continuous time at sea without a port call due to Trump’s decision to extend the ship’s deployment in the Middle East.
“The men and women of Carrier Strike Group THREE have demonstrated exceptional resolve under demanding conditions,” Cao wrote. “Operational decisions to extend deployments are never made lightly.” During that deployment, personnel aboard the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier reported a slew of challenges, including food shortages and sewage issues, that negatively impacted their well-being.
Yet Trump has dismissed such concerns. When asked last month whether he was concerned about the crew’s mental health and the length of the deployment, Trump responded: “No. No. No. Not nearly long enough.”—Alexandra Sharp
What should be high on your radar, if it isn’t already.
New deal? At UNGA, Iran furnished the United States with a proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days and resume negotiations on a permanent deal “if certain conditions are met,” Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi told a small group of reporters on the sidelines of the gathering.
“The conditions we have asked the U. S. to meet is nothing new, nothing more than what was already in the Islamabad agreement, which was signed by the U. S. president,” he said. “So, if anything they committed themselves in the MOU [memorandum of understanding] is in fact implemented in practice, the conditions that we have set are met, then the strait will be open and talks will be restarted to get to the final deal.”
Araghchi said they’d introduced the new plan to the Trump administration via “intermediaries” and that Iran is waiting for a response from the U. S. side, adding that the seven-day clock would begin “the day after the U. S. accepts this plan.”
He declined to put a deadline on a response from Washington, saying Tehran was “not in a hurry” to proceed. “I think it would be much better if it is done before the midterm election, but it depends on the U. S. administration to decide,” he said. “We don’t care about the timing, but the plan is very clear. The moment they accept this plan, from the next day, this timetable can start, and after seven days the strait will be open.”
The route through the strait that the United States is expected to agree to is the one Iran agreed with Oman roughly a month ago.
Araghchi also confirmed that he would be staying in New York through at least the coming weekend, though he did not share what the agenda for the remaining days would be.
Split screen. Trump is hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington this week, marking the Chinese leader’s first visit to the capital in more than a decade. The summit started off strong; Trump chose to greet Xi on the tarmac yesterday rather than wait for him at the White House in a sign of goodwill, and before today’s bilateral talks kicked off behind closed doors in the Oval Office, Xi announced that Beijing would gift two giant pandas to the Atlanta zoo.
But it’s not clear if much diplomatic progress will be made beyond that.
Despite there being a litany of issues on the table—from artificial “super” intelligence to critical minerals competition to human rights concerns—the two leaders were expected to reach few breakthroughs. In his opening remarks ahead of the talks, Xi warned against falling into the “Thucydides trap,” in which a rising power and an established power go to war. “Achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again can go hand in hand,” Xi told Trump ahead of the talks.
Such a war could center on Taiwan. According to Chinese state media, Xi pushed Trump to oppose the island’s independence and to permanently halt a $14 billion arms deal with Taipei, which Cao confirmed had been paused in May. Trump has previously called the package a “negotiating chip” while, at the same time, floating direct talks with Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te.
Conflict could also take the form of a trade war, though. Just hours before Xi arrived in Washington, U. S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent agreed to extend the two countries’ tariff pause by two months; the agreement was set to expire in mid-November. Yet Trump and Xi seem to have failed in Thursday’s meeting to come up with an arrangement that moves past the temporary truce, as no deal has been announced as of time of writing. Xi and his wife will return to the White House this evening for a state dinner. Several CEOs of major U. S. tech companies are expected to attend as well.—Alexandra Sharp
Looming threat. As Russia escalates its hybrid warfare in Europe, there is a “low but growing risk” of a limited Russian military attack against a NATO member in the coming months, Danish intelligence warned on Thursday in its latest threat assessment. Potential attacks include isolated strikes with long-range weapons on vital infrastructure, false-flag operations, or the deployment of a limited number of military forces into NATO countries that border Russia, the threat assessment added. There are no signs that Russia will launch an outright invasion against a NATO member, although it still cannot be ruled out, it noted.
“The situation is serious,” Danish Defense Minister Jeppe Bruus said at a news conference. “It is more serious now than at any other point since the end of the Cold War.”
The threat assessment comes as NATO members have been grappling with a rash of suspected Russian hybrid attacks, with French President Emmanuel Macron warning this month that Moscow’s hybrid threat has intensified in its bid to intimidate Ukraine’s allies. Earlier this month, Germany concluded that Russia was responsible for a drone laden with military-grade explosives that was discovered near a Ukrainian plane at a German airport in August.—Christina Lu
Chinese President Xi Jinping points to a portrait of former U. S. President Barack Obama as Xi and Chinese first lady Peng Liyuan walk along the colonnade with U. S. President Donald Trump and U. S. first lady Melania Trump at the White House in Washington, D. C., on Sept. 24. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Alexander de Croo is the administrator of the United Nations Development Program, which is tasked with eradicating poverty and improving sustainable development around the world, especially in conflict zones. His role requires raising scarce aid. But from 2020 to 2025, he was Belgium’s prime minister, making the case for more defense spending. At FP’s Global Development Forum, our editor in chief, Ravi Agrawal, asked de Croo how he reconciles the two.
“I still stand behind what I said years ago. There was a need in Europe to increase defense spending,” de Croo said. “The financing of development is much more than public spending,” he added, pointing to increased contributions from international financial institutions such as the World Bank as well as the private sector. (Catch the full interview on FP Live next week!)
Monday, Sept. 28: The U. N. General Assembly’s general debate concludes.
Tuesday, Sept. 29: New U. S. import bans on Canadian goods take effect.
Wednesday, Sept. 30: U. S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is expected to give a “State of the Force” address.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and French President Emmanuel Macron hold talks in Madrid.
Saturday, Oct. 3: Latvia holds parliamentary elections.
Sunday, Oct. 4: Brazil holds presidential and legislative elections.
Bosnia and Herzegovina holds a general election.
85,887—your SitRep coauthors’ cumulative UNGA step count this week, keeping the tradition alive from last year.
“There’s a consensus that we need a way forward. That’s the only consensus.”
—U. S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, when asked if there was consensus between the Trump administration and Gulf Cooperation Council leaders on how to move forward with Iran.
Rishi Iyengar is a staff writer at Foreign Policy. Bluesky: @iyengarish.bsky.social X: @Iyengarish Instagram: @iyengar.rishi
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