Qatar, Turkey and Jordan delivered fierce speeches against Israel at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, accusing it of “genocide” and of sabotaging negotiations to end the war in Gaza. Qatar’s ruler even labeled Israel’s strike in Doha a “terrorist act.”
Yet, Indonesia’s president, leader of the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, broke ranks and said Israel’s security must also be guaranteed as part of a two-state solution.
A message of peace and recognition of the Kingdom of Israel from the largest Islamic country. Thank you very much. President of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto 🙏🏼 pic.twitter.com/agjfALCXAF
— Abedalelah Almaala (@AbedAlmaala) September 23, 2025
Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani condemned Israel’s strike on senior Hamas officials in Doha, calling it “a terrorist act.” He said it was a “direct violation of our sovereignty and a breach of international law. We classified it as terrorism.”
The Qatari Emiri and Syrian President at the UN Assembly. Photo: AFP
The emir claimed the attack was illegitimate, even if, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued, it was aimed at fighting terrorism. “It undermines every political effort, an attempt to kill negotiators while they were discussing the American proposal,” he said. “If freeing Israeli hostages were truly the way to end the war, why does Israel’s government reject it? Because its goal is not only to free hostages but to destroy Gaza, to erase its existence.”
He accused Netanyahu of pursuing the vision of “Greater Israel,” meaning endless fighting and occupation. He added that Israel’s actions against Qatar showed its willingness “to intervene wherever and whenever it wishes” and warned that Israel had become a threat to its neighbors. “Its leaders boast of blocking the establishment of a Palestinian state and openly declare they will do everything to prevent it,” he said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan opened his address by lamenting that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was absent, blaming a US ban on his participation. “I call on all states that have not yet done so to recognize the State of Palestine,” he said.
Erdogan accused Israel of carrying out a “continuing genocide” in Gaza for “more than 700 days.” He held up photos of Gazan women queuing for food and a starving infant, declaring that “two- and three-year-old children without arms and legs are a common sight in Gaza. Children’s limbs are being amputated without anesthesia. This is the greatest moral low point of humanity.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the UN General Assembly. Photo: Getty Images via AFP
He charged that Israel was expanding its aggression beyond Gaza, “attacking in Judea and Samaria, Syria, Iran and Yemen, threatening regional security.” Referring again to the Doha strike, he said Israel had “recently attacked a delegation meeting in Qatar to discuss a ceasefire – Israel’s leadership is utterly out of control.” Erdogan accused Netanyahu of rejecting both peace and hostage releases, saying his government, “guided by the idea of Greater Israel, is threatening regional peace.”
Jordan’s King Abdullah II invoked the post-Holocaust vow of “never again,” reminding the Assembly that it was founded 80 years ago with a commitment to learn from history. “The world swore: never again. And yet, almost throughout this time, Palestinians have lived in a cruel cycle of ‘again and again,'” he said.
Describing the Palestinian reality, he said: “Bombarded indiscriminately… again and again. Killed, wounded, maimed… again and again. Displaced and dispossessed… again and again. Denied their rights, their dignity… their very humanity… again and again.”
Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the UN General Assembly. Photo: Reuters
He called the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “the world’s longest unresolved conflict,” denouncing it as “the illegal occupation of a defenseless people by a self-proclaimed ‘democratic nation.'” He said the Gaza war represented “one of the darkest moments in the history of this institution.”
Abdullah lashed out at the Israeli government’s “provocative calls for what they term ‘Greater Israel,’ which could only be realized through blatant violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its neighbors.” He asked whether similar rhetoric from an Arab leader would have been met with “the same global indifference.”
He said the international community must “end the illusion that this government is a viable partner for peace,” charging that Israel’s actions “are deliberately dismantling the very foundations on which peace could stand, burying the idea of a Palestinian state.”
The king insisted that security could come “only when Palestine and Israel live side by side,” calling for “a viable, independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, alongside a secure Israel at peace with its neighbors.”
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, who had surprised observers in June when he said alongside French President Emmanuel Macron in Jakarta that Indonesia would recognize Israel if it recognized a Palestinian state, repeated that message in his first speech to the Assembly since taking office.
Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto at the UN General Assembly. Photo: Reuters
He said Indonesia “will never remain silent while Palestinians are denied justice and legitimacy in this very hall” and condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza.
But in a striking departure from the line of other Muslim leaders, Subianto declared: “Palestine and Israel must both be free and independent, safe and secure from threats and terrorism. But we must also, also, recognize, respect and guarantee the security of Israel. Only then can we achieve real peace. Real peace. No more hatred and suspicion. The only solution is this one: the two-state solution.”
He even offered to contribute “20,000 or more of our sons and daughters” to serve in a multinational force to help secure peace in Gaza or elsewhere in the Palestinian territories under a two-state arrangement. He closed his speech with the word “shalom” in Hebrew, along with greetings in other languages.
