U.N. Assembly: Serious Meeting - or No?

It would be easy to dismiss the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly as a stage for those who seek only the spotlight. Very easy.

Look no further than Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi who held the podium for an hour and a half this week as he rambled through remarks which included taking a copy of the United Nations charter and tossing it aside. Qadhafi also said the U.N. Security Council should be called the "Terror Council." Go figure.

Then there was Venezuela's Hugo Chavez who played off his own remarks from 2006 when, alluding to then-President George W. Bush speaking at the same podium, said "it smells like sulfur here." This week Chavez smiled and said "it doesn't smell like sulfur anymore."

Toss in Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and you get the U.N.'s trifecta of off the wall world leaders taking their moment before a half-empty General Assembly and, more important, U.N. TV cameras to say whatever happens to be on their agenda.

The U.N. venue, however, can serve a more serious purpose and we also saw evidence of that this week. President Barack Obama used his appearance to call for a stop to the spread of nuclear weapons and for a new effort to make peace between Israel and the Palestinians. He acknowledged the difficulty of bringing Israelis and Palestinians together, saying "there will be setbacks, and false starts, and tough days" but added he "will not waiver in my pursuit of peace." It'll be interesting to see how much progress his special envoy, former Senator George Mitchell, will be able to make by next year's U.N. General assembly meetings.

For the moment, Mr. Obama has promised only that Mitchell would continue his work and report to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton by mid-October. That sounds more like another chapter of kick-the-can down the road which is nothing new for America's Middle East peacemaking efforts. Clearly the President did not have to hold a tri-lateral summit if that was all he could get from Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority. One U.S. official called it "a meeting which should not have taken place," although he added that the two sides might have gotten the message that Mr. Obama will not be as patient as they thought.

A lot of diplomatic activity goes on this time of year in New York City and much of it is behind the scenes. This year there has been a big focus on Iran's nuclear ambitions and there was a lot of preparation between the U.S., the U.K., France, Russia, China and Germany - the so-called P-5+1 - for a meeting next week in Geneva with Iran's representative to talk about Tehran's nuclear program.

Other issues highlighted this year included food security and world energy needs. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton hosted a lunch for women leaders and was expected to take part in a meeting on Violence Against Women in Conflicts before the New York meetings adjourned.

Another annual feature of these meetings is seeing just how tight security can get, which of course includes tying up traffic all over New York City but most especially around the U.N. and the hotels where President Obama and other high profile world leaders stay. Somehow both the motorcades and pedestrians trying to get from one place to another manage to get where they are going.

What the week is really about is taking almost everything on the world's political agenda and finding a time and a meeting place to deal with the issue or the leaders involved in it, one way or another. Few issues are resolved in New York, though everyone is made to feel like attention has been paid to them or their pet issue. There seems to be enough limelight to go around, at least once every year.