Two things are almost certain about this year's debate at the UN General Assembly: it will be overshadowed by crises in the Middle East, and world leaders who have descended on New York will not be able to solve them.
They are not even officially on the agenda. First, there are the roiling anti-American protests caused by the video denigrating the Prophet Muhammad.
The violent reaction in Muslim countries has raised old controversies about the limits of freedom of expression and the right to protection against religious defamation.
And it has raised new concerns about stability in the democracies born of the Arab Spring.
Then, there is the war that the UN cannot stop.
"Syria will be at the top of my agenda," the Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told journalists in a news conference previewing the year's most intense week of diplomacy. "It will be at the top of every leader's mind."
'Permanent paralysis'
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End Quote UN Security Council diplomatThe general feeling that we all have is that we are an audience in front of a tragedy. The two sides are fighting apparently to the death”
That is probably because at this point there is no disguising the fact that Syria is a UN failure.
Divided over whether Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should play any role in a political transition, the Security Council could not reach a common position, let alone take action. Kofi Annan, the first special envoy tasked with crafting a solution to the crisis, gave up in despair. And his replacement, Lakhdar Brahimi, seems at a loss for a strategy.
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