{"id":500547,"date":"2026-03-03T04:47:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T04:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/500547\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T04:47:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T04:47:14","slug":"melania-trump-urges-protecting-childrens-education-at-un-after-iran-school-strike-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/500547\/","title":{"rendered":"Melania Trump urges protecting children\u2019s education at UN after Iran school strike | US news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melania Trump became the first spouse of a sitting world leader to preside over the UN security council on Monday, calling on member states to protect children\u2019s access to education days after Iranian state media reported that an airstrike killed at least 165 people<\/a> at a girls\u2019 school in southern Iran.<\/p>\n

The meeting, titled Children, Technology and Education in Conflict, had been scheduled before the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The first lady took her seat at the council\u2019s horseshoe table in New York, was greeted by secretary general Ant\u00f3nio Guterres, shook hands with each of the 15 member state representatives and posed for a group photograph before opening the session.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe US stands with all of the children throughout the world,\u201d Trump said in her opening remarks. \u201cI hope soon peace will be yours.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her speech, the first lady argued that education was fundamental to preventing conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cA nation that makes learning sacred protects its books, its language, its science and its mathematics,\u201d she told council members. \u201cIt protects its future.\u201d She also made the case for artificial intelligence to be looked at as the new great equalizer, urging the council to \u201cconnect everyone to knowledge through AI, including those in the most remote geographic regions of our world\u201d.<\/p>\n

She did not address the war or the reported school strike. The Israeli military said it was not aware of strikes in the area, and the US military said it was looking into the reports.<\/p>\n

Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran\u2019s ambassador to the UN, had earlier called it \u201cdeeply shameful and hypocritical\u201d for Washington to convene a meeting on protecting children in conflict while simultaneously launching airstrikes on Iranian cities.<\/p>\n

The US holds the council\u2019s rotating monthly presidency for March, and the White House explained<\/a> the selection of Melania Trump by saying that child welfare is known to be her top issue. The session was the second in three days \u2013 on Saturday, an emergency meeting called in response to the outbreak of war grew contentious after Guterres condemned the US-Israeli strikes and Iran\u2019s retaliatory attacks as violations of international law.<\/p>\n

Melania Trump\u2019s appearance at the UN also came against a backdrop of significant strain between Washington and the global humanitarian advocacy organization. Donald Trump has withdrawn the US from the World Health Organization, Unesco and numerous other UN bodies, and has allowed billions in mandatory dues to go unpaid.<\/p>\n

Guterres warned in January that the UN faced \u201cimminent financial collapse\u201d. Meanwhile, Donald Trump had convened the newly minted Board of Peace<\/a> with dozens of countries for a UN-style meeting in Washington weeks earlier.<\/p>\n

Asked whether the first lady\u2019s presence signalled an improvement in US-UN relations, a UN spokesperson told the Associated Press<\/a> it demonstrated \u201cthe importance that the United States feels towards the Security Council and the subject\u201d.<\/p>\n

Melania Trump has advocated on child welfare diplomacy, writing to Vladimir Putin, Russia\u2019s president, last summer ahead of his summit with her husband. She later said the effort<\/a> had contributed to Ukrainian children \u2013 removed to Russia after the 2022 invasion \u2013 being reunited with their families.<\/p>\n

\u201cConflict arises from ignorance, but knowledge creates understanding, replacing fear with peace and unity,\u201d Melania Trump concluded in her speech. She then encouraged security council member states to \u201cpledge to safeguard learning in our communities and promote access to heightened education for all\u201d.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cI implore you to build a future generation of leaders who embrace peace through education.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melania Trump became the first spouse of a sitting world leader to preside over the UN security council…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-500547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}