His appearance before the international body also offers Biden one of his last high-profile opportunities as president to make the case to keep up unconditional support for Ukraine which, so far, has cost Americans taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.
Biden administration officials will be speaking to their counterparts on the sidelines of the U.N. about ideas that they believe could prevent the fighting between Israel and Lebanon from escalating, according to two senior administration officials.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, declined to offer any further details on the potential off-ramps. One of the officials said that other countries were also keen to present ideas to reduce tensions.
Biden had a hopeful outlook for the Middle East when he addressed the U.N. just a year ago. In that speech, Biden spoke of a “sustainable, integrated Middle East” coming into view. But that, of course, was before Hamas terrorists from Gaza massacred more than 1200 innocent Israeli men, women and children on October 7th.
At the time, economic relations between Israel and some of its Arab neighbors were improving with implementation of the Abraham Accords that Israel signed with Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates during the Trump administration.
