By Maya Gebeily

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Wednesday that ongoing negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could lead to results "in the coming days."

He told reporters in Damascus the security pact was a "necessity" and that it would need to respect Syria’s airspace and territorial unity and be monitored by the United Nations.

Syria and Israel are in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israeli airstrikes and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -World leaders gather in New York every September for several days of speeches at the annual United Nations General Assembly, which on Tuesday begins its 80th session.

WHO SPEAKS WHEN?

The United Nations was formed in 1945 with 51 original members and has since grown to 193 members. Leaders of two non-member observer states - known at the U.N. as the Holy See and the State of Palestine - and an observer member, the European Union, can also speak.

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain will formally recognise a Palestinian state this weekend, after U.S. President Donald Trump, who opposes the decision, has left the country at the end of his state visit, the Times newspaper reported.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned in July that it would take the action unless Israel took steps to relieve suffering in Gaza and reached a ceasefire in its nearly two-year war with Hamas.

Israel says recognising a Palestinian state, which France, Canada, and Australia have also said they will do this month, would reward Hamas.

By Steven Scheer

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -A low-cost, high-power laser-based system aimed at destroying incoming missiles has successfully completed testing and will be ready for operational use by the military later this year, Israel's Defence Ministry said on Wednesday.

Co-developed by Elbit Systems and Rafael Advance Defense Systems, "Iron Beam" will complement Israel's Iron Dome, David's Sling and Arrow anti-missile systems, which have been used to intercept thousands of rockets fired by Hamas militants in Gaza, by Hezbollah from Lebanon and by the Houthis in Yemen.

DUBAI (Reuters) -Saudi Arabia and nuclear-armed Pakistan have signed a formal mutual defense pact, Pakistani state television said on Wednesday, in a move that significantly strengthens a decades-long security partnership.

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA (Reuters) -Doctors Without Borders said on Wednesday it was appalled by the death of one of its nurses, who died on Tuesday from shrapnel wounds caused by an Israeli airstrike near his tent five days earlier.

The nurse, Hussein Alnajjar, was a father of three who worked at the international organisation's medical clinic in Deir al Balah and Khan Younis since January of last year. His sister-in-law and nephew were injured in the same airstrike.

He is the thirteenth Doctors Without Borders medic to be killed since the war in Gaza began.

BERLIN (Reuters) -Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Wednesday that criticism of Israel was increasingly being used in Germany as a pretext for stoking hatred against Jews.

Speaking at an event to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Central Council of Jews, Merz said that antisemitism had "become louder, more open, more brazen, more violent almost every day" since the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, that ignited the Gaza war.

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -World leaders gather in New York next week for a U.N. General Assembly dominated by U.S. President Donald Trump's return to the rostrum, war in Gaza and Ukraine, rising Western recognition of Palestinian statehood and nuclear tensions with Iran.

"We are gathering in turbulent – even uncharted – waters," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said a week before the 193-member world body hosts six days of speeches by nearly 150 heads of state or government along with dozens more ministers.

By Allison Lampert

MONTREAL (Reuters) - A global emissions deal is key for airlines ahead of a U.N. aviation gathering next week, despite skepticism that the industry can hit its own environmental targets, the head of trade body IATA told reporters on Wednesday.

By Bassam Masoud and Saleh Salem

DOHA (Reuters) -Najwa Abu Hamada felt no sense of justice when a U.N. Commission of Inquiry cited the destruction of a fertility clinic among actions that it said showed Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.

Instead, the commission's findings revived painful memories in Abu Hamada of the embryos she had stored at the Al-Basma IVF centre and lost when it was hit by Israeli forces in late 2023.