Over 200 world leaders have gathered in New York for the 68th United Nations General Assembly where the situation in Syria is likely to be the number one topic of discussion, according to C-Span.
Recently the United States and Russia agreed on a plan to seize and destroy all of the chemical weapons currently being held by the government of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. One sticking point in the negotiations was figuring out what role the United Nations play in the disarmament and what sort of consequences will be imposed on Syria should they fail to cooperate.
President Barack Obama is set to address the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday morning where his remarks will likely address the Syrian issue as well as the issue of Iran's nuclear program. Many countries in the west are dubious about Iran's plans to go forward with building nuclear power plants because they believe that building nuclear weapons would be the next step, according to the Associated Press.
Since his first campaign President Obama has said that he would consider opening up diplomatic relations with Iran; he will have a chance to do so as Iranian President Hasan Rouhani will be in attendance at the U.N. meeting and is also scheduled to make an address this afternoon.
"We are hoping to engage with the Iranian government at a variety of levels, provided they will follow through on their commitment to address the international community's concerns over their nuclear program," Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told ABC News.
Also speaking at the U.N. General Assembly will be Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. Rousseff recently canceled a scheduled state dinner with President Obama over allegations that the National Security Agency had been spying on her personal emails as well as the emails of the state run oil producer Petrobras.
A live stream of the full meeting of the U.N. General Assembly can be seen here.
President Obama will be speaking at 9:45 a.m., President Rouseff at 9:30 a.m. and President Rouhani at 4:45 p.m. ET.
