UN Security Council: Theresa May defends Brexit vote at General Assembly as Trump chairs meeting
US President repeatedly attacks Iran for second time in two days
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Donald Trump has chairing a United Nations Security Council meeting - a first for the US president.
It means that most of the attention that would have been focused on events at the General Assembly - where UK Prime Minister Theresa May would later defend the Brexit vote - was instead focused on the UN's most powerful body, where the US currently holds the rotating presidency.
While the meeting of the council addressed the issue of nonproliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, Mr Trump himself used the platform to attack Iran and accuse China - but not Russia - of meddling in 2018 midterm elections.
On Tuesday, during an unabashedly "America First" speech, Mr Trump said Iranian leaders "sow chaos, death and destruction" and "spread mayhem across the Middle East and far beyond." His national security adviser, John Bolton, also warned that there would be "hell to pay" if Tehran crossed the US, its allies or their partners.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani responded by accusing the Mr Trump administration of violating the rules of international law and "state obligations" by withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal that Iran signed with the US and five other major powers.
Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal
Show all 10Mr Rouhani did not to attend the Security Council meeting that. The council is populated by five permanent members -- the US, China, Russia, Britain and France -- and 10 other member states, who occupy a council seat for two-year terms. Iran is not among them.
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The Secretary-General of the United Nations on climate change:
"We still lack strong leadership to take the bold decisions needed to put our economies and societies on the path of low-carbon growth and climate-resilience".
British Prime Minister Theresa May takes the stage at the United Nations General Assembly.
Theresa May says Brexit was "not a rejection" of multinationalism but a clear demand for decisions and accountability to rely closer to home.
British Prime Minister Theresa May addressed the media during her speech at the General Assembly.
She said she may not always "enjoy" what the media has to say about her but she will "defend their right to say it".
"We must call out hate speech anti-Semitism, islamophobia and all forms of prejudice and discrimination against minorities wherever we find it," says Theresa May.
Liberia's President George Weah told the General Assembly earlier that Liberia will begin a series of national peace dialogues as to "not repeat the costly mistakes of the past".
Afghanistan's chief executive has told world leaders his country has "turned a page" toward peace in the last year, and he's calling for their help in getting to "a new phase free of violence" in a country riven by conflict since the 1970s.
Abdullah Abdullah pointed to developments including the Taliban's participation in a brief ceasefire in June.
He said Afghans "pose no danger to anyone" and seek to "play a constructive and collaborative role" regionally.
The UN envoy for Afghanistan recently said the country is in its best position since 2001 to start a process leading to peace talks with Taliban militants.
Still, attacks this year have underscored the difficulties Afghan forces have faced in combatting the Taliban and an Islamic State affiliate.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani is calling the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal "a mistake" and says sooner or later the United States will support it again.
He told a news conference Wednesday that Iran doesn't want to go to war with the American forces anywhere in the Mideast, declaring: "We do not want to attack them. We do not wish to increase tensions."
Mr Rouhani said the US pullout from the 2015 nuclear agreement has isolated the US — not Iran.
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