Melania Trump, First Lady of the United States of America and President of the United Nations Security Council for the month of March, chairs the Security Council meeting on Children, Technology and Education in Conflict at UN world headquarters in New York Mar. 2, 2026. (UN Photo by: Manuel Elias)
By Gary Raynaldo – DIPLOMATIC TIMES
First Lady Melania Trump presided over a UN Security Council meeting Monday promoting peace through education while the US and Israel attacked Iran. It was the first time that a sitting first lady chaired a Security Council meeting as the US assumed its Presidency at the world body. The Security Council’s Presidency rotates among members each month with the US assuming the chair for March. The Security Council convened a meeting on “Children, technology, and education in conflict”, chaired by the first lady. Typically, the UN ambassador or senior official takes the gavel. Trump urged UN member states to protect children’s access to education. Iran reported on the first day of the war on Saturday that a girls’ school was hit by an air strike, killing as many as 175 people, mostly school girls between the ages of 7 and 12. The UN education agency, UNESCO, said in a statement that the bombing of the school during the US and Israeli military attacks on Iran “constitutes a grave violation of humanitarian law.”
Addressing the Security Council, Trump said: “Enduring peace will be achieved when knowledge and understanding are fully valued within all societies,” adding that “now is the time for our generation to elevate our children above ideology through access to wisdom.” The first lady did not address the US-Israeli military attacks on Iran or the school attack. “The U.S. stands with all of the children throughout the world. I hope soon—peace will be yours,” Trump told the Security Council. “Conflict arises from ignorance, but knowledge creates understanding, replacing fear with peace and unity, the first lady said in her concluding remarks. She encouraged Security Council members to pledge to safeguard learning in global communities and promote access to heightened education for all. “I implore you to build a future generation of leaders who embrace peace through education.”
Iran has responded with a wave of drone and missile attacks across the region against Israel and several Gulf states. On Saturday, the Security Council met in an emergency session following the joint US-Israeli strikes against Iran. UN Secretary General António Guterres called for de-escalation and an immediate cessation of hostilities. “We are witnessing a grave threat to international peace and security,” Guterres told the Security Council. He warned that the conflict could ignite “a chain of events that no one can control in the most volatile region of the world.”
The Iranian ambassador to the UN Amir-Saeid Iravani called the US-Israeli military attacks a “war crime,” adding that “The invocation to ‘pre-emptive attack,’ claims of imminent threat, or other unsubstantiated political claims, are unfounded legally, morally and politically.”
The US ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz defended the military action. “For 47 years, the Iranian regime has chanted quote, “Death to America,” the US ambassador said. “At every turn, at every opening of its Parliament, it has sought to eradicate the State of Israel. It has waged unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder. It is responsible for a series of unprovoked armed attacks targeting the United States and Israel, violations of the UN Charter, and threats to international peace and security across the Middle East.” Waltz said the goal is to ensure that “the Iranian regime can never, ever threaten the world with a nuclear weapon.”
