TEHRAN — The 81st United Nations General Assembly opened Tuesday under a cloud of unprecedented hostility toward the United States and Israel.
Nearly 130 world leaders and high-level representatives arrived in New York to find a heavily militarized perimeter and an organization paralyzed by Western aggression.
The session runs through September 28 under the theme of “restoring trust.” That theme collides with the reality on the ground.
Washington and Tel Aviv stand isolated. They are prosecuting a seven-month joint war on Iran and a grinding genocide in Gaza, as well as other campaigns of aggression elsewhere.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres opened the high-level debate for the final time. He pointed to a world crippled by impunity.
Bangladeshi diplomat Khalilur Rahman presides over a fractured room where American diplomatic cover for Israel is finally buckling under global outrage.
A collapsing war narrative
President Donald Trump took the rostrum to project strength. He instead delivered a heavily fictionalized defense of a disastrous foreign policy.
He claimed Tehran is “near collapse” and “begging for a deal” after the upcoming November midterm elections. The facts document a completely different reality.
Iran has absorbed the unprovoked U.S.-Israeli strikes launched in late February and maintained a formidable deterrence architecture.
The Iranian military has responded by imposing a wartime management regime on the Strait of Hormuz and striking Israel, as well as American bases in Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Iraq.
The war has yielded zero strategic victories for Washington. It has, however, cratered the American economy.
Global oil prices remain elevated. Brent crude previously hit a high of over $114 per barrel. Severe disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz continue to choke commercial shipping.
Working-class American households are bearing the cost. U.S. consumers have paid an extra $113 billion for gasoline and diesel since the conflict began. This amounts to roughly $866 per household.
The national average for regular gas sits above $4.47 a gallon. Diesel broke historic records, crossing the six-dollar mark in September.
The domestic political fallout is absolute. A new CNN survey shows only 26 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of Iran.
Republican support is actively bleeding out, dropping precipitously since the spring.
The international reception was just as bleak. The Cuban delegation walked out when Trump insulted their government as “a failed state.”
Weaponizing the headquarters
Washington is now using its administrative powers to silence the opposition it cannot defeat militarily.
For the second consecutive year, the State Department denied entry visas to the Palestinian delegation. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his diplomats were barred from entering the host country.
The United States also refused visas to members of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s communications team and accompanying press personnel.
These bans violate the 1947 UN Headquarters Agreement. The treaty legally obligates Washington to facilitate access for all recognized delegations.
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas issued a sharp condemnation. Spokesperson Hazem Qassem called the visa denial a flagrant breach of international conventions and an extension of unconditional U.S. bias toward the Zionist occupation.
The General Assembly bypassed the blockade. Member states voted 152 to 3 to allow Abbas to address the body via a prerecorded broadcast. Only the United States, Israel, and Paraguay opposed the measure.
Palestine is recognized by 160 countries. The lopsided vote mathematically illustrates the total collapse of American influence over the global consensus.
Street arrests and political fractures
The anger inside the assembly hall poured into the streets. New York police deployed aggressively near the UN complex, arresting dozens of anti-war activists who blocked intersections ahead of Trump’s arrival.
The demonstrators carried signs demanding an end to the Gaza genocide and the immediate cessation of hostilities against Iran.
They represent a shifting American electorate. Polling now shows 15 percent of Americans view Israel as an outright enemy. That figure jumps to 23 percent among voters under 45.
The political friction has reached the highest levels of local government. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to speak Thursday.
He preempted his arrival by releasing a video attacking New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
The mayor previously labeled Netanyahu a war criminal and supported the International Criminal Court arrest warrants. Netanyahu accused Mamdani of supporting terrorism.
The bizarre spectacle of a globally-hated foreign leader attacking the mayor of his host city underscores the severe bunker mentality gripping the Israeli political establishment.
The 81st General Assembly opened with calls to restore trust. It immediately transformed into a venue for prosecuting Western hypocrisy.
Delegations from the Global South are watching a weakened American president and a desperate Israeli prime minister attempt to dictate terms to a world that no longer fears them.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: tehrantimes.com
