United Nations

Khaled El-Enany, Egyptologist and former Minister of Tourism and Antiquities of Egypt, speaks during an interview with AFP at a hotel in Paris on April 10, 2025.

Culture

UNESCO backs Egypt's Khaled el-Enany as next director-general, first Arab in post

Enany would be the first Egyptian and the first Arab to serve as the agency’s director-general.

Former senior commander of the Sudanese Janjaweed militia Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman.

In a first, ICC convicts Sudanese militia leader of Darfur war crimes

Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman was found guilty of 27 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur between 2003 and 2004.

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi (C) welcomes Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov (L) and Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazeem Gharibabadi.

Analysis

How far will China, Russia go in shielding Iran from UN sanctions?

Iran is lobbying states to resist enforcement of UN sanctions — looking particularly to China and Russia to blunt the impact, even as questions remain about the limits of their willingness to act.

A correspondent in Tehran

By A correspondent in Tehran

In Tehran, reporting on politics

President of Iran Masoud Pezeshkian speaks during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the United Nations headquarters on Sept. 24, 2025 in New York City.

Analysis

'Prepared for any scenario': What are Iran's options after sanctions snapback?

As the snapback nears, Iran weighs diplomacy, escalation and changes to its nuclear policy.

A correspondent in Tehran

By A correspondent in Tehran

In Tehran, reporting on politics

Latest News

Pentagon pushes to accelerate ISIS detainee repatriations from Syria

Women and children walk at the Al-Amal Camp (formerly Al-Jadaa), south of Mosul in northern Iraq, which houses Iraqi families who have been repatriated from Syria's Al-Hol camp, on May 8, 2025.

Analysis

Netanyahu sidesteps Trump's Gaza plan at UN as US presses Israel to end war

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (L) talks to US President Donald Trump during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on April 7, 2025, in Washington.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Trump presents Gaza plan to Arab, Muslim leaders at UNGA

President Donald Trump (C-R) and President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan (C-L) listen during a multilateral meeting with leaders from several Arab and Muslim-majority countries at the 80th session of the UN’s General Assembly (UNGA) at the United Nations headquarters on Sept. 23, 2025 in New York City.

Araghchi pushes last-ditch diplomacy at UN as Iran braces for sanctions snapback

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attends a joint press conference following the signing of an Egypt-backed agreement on practical modalities to resume nuclear inspections on the Iranian nuclear program on Sept. 9, 2025 in Cairo, Egypt.

A convoy transporting humanitarian aid crosses into Syria from Turkey through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing on Jan. 18, 2022.

Possible closure of Turkey-Syria crossing alarms aid groups

Fears are mounting about a looming humanitarian catastrophe amid concerns that Russia will close the last border crossing through which UN and NGO aid passes to reach millions of needy in north Syria.

UN Special Rapporteur for the Palestinians Francesca Albanese.

Interview

Israel’s occupation has crossed the ‘red line of legality,’ says new UN rapporteur

In an interview with Al-Monitor, the newly appointed UN special rapporteur for the Palestinians, Francesca Albanese, speaks about her plans to address human rights violations in the Palestinian territories, while fending off a smear campaign launched against her by Israel.

Francesca Albanese

Francesca Albanese

UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories

Odessa Archaeological Museum.

Culture

Egyptian antiquities at risk in Ukraine

Two weeks into the Russian military operation in Ukraine, Egyptian archaeologists are seeking protection of Egyptian antiquities at the Odessa Museum in Ukraine.

UN special representative Volker Perthes addresses the media in Khartoum on Jan. 10, 2022.

Sudanese public widely rejects new UN initiative

A number of Sudan's major civilian groups have shown skepticism toward UN efforts to help.

Israel's UN Envoy Gilad Erdan together with Holocaust survivors, after the UN General Assembly adopted an Israel-sponsored resolution against Holocaust denial, New York, Jan. 20, 2022.

UN adopts historic Israeli-sponsored resolution to combat Holocaust denial

Israeli leaders expressed satisfaction over the UN General Assembly approving an Israeli-initiated resolution against Holocaust denial.

Those displaced by conflict receive food aid in the Tuhayta district of Yemen's war-ravaged Hodeidah province, on June 30, 2021.

Aid agencies sound alarm as US considers relisting Houthis as terror group

The US State Department says it would have to "fully consider the humanitarian implications" of the Houthis' redesignation as a terrorist group.

Iraqis play at the snow-covered Safin Mountain on Jan. 18, 2022, near the city of Erbil, the capital of Iraq's northern Kurdish autonomous region.

Rare snowstorm hits Iraq and Syria

Many people in the Kurdistan Region rejoiced while playing in the snow, but such conditions can be dangerous for others, especially those living in displaced people camps.

Sudanese protesters raise a national flag as they rally against the October 2021 military coup, in Khartoum on Jan. 13, 2022.

US diplomats head to Saudi Arabia, Sudan to push UN post-coup dialogue

African migrants huddle under a blanket at a makeshift shelter in the capital Tripoli's suburb of Ain Zara, on Oct. 9, 2021.

Hundreds of migrants detained outside of UN center in Libya

The migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers were camping out near the building in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

Al-Monitor Staff

By Al-Monitor Staff

ASHRAF SHAZLY/AFP via Getty Images

UN says Sudan dialogue to resolve coup to begin immediately

The talks will bring together protest movement and civil society representatives, rebel groups and the military in hope of restoring Sudan's path to democratic role.

A journalist films the wreckage of a building described as part of the Scientific Studies and Research Centre (SSRC) compound in the Barzeh district, north of Damascus, during a press tour organized by the Syrian information ministry, on April 14, 2018.

UN accuses Syria of failing to answer for chemical weapons program

The UN's top disarmament official said Syria's full disclosure was "essential" to resolving outstanding issues.

Syrian Health Minister Hassan al-Ghabash (R) and the Chinese Ambassador in his country Feng Biao (L) take part in a ceremony upon the arrival of Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine, in the capital, Damascus, on Nov. 14, 2021.

China provides grant to Syrian nonprofit

The grant followed a phone conversation between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his counterpart, Xi Jinping, about China's global economic initiatives and reconstruction in Syria.