Melania Trump stepped into a role no sitting world leader's spouse has held before on Monday, chairing a United Security Council session even as the US-led war on Iran hung over the room. Presiding over a meeting titled "Children, Technology and Education in Conflict," the first lady urged member states to shield schooling from war and to treat learning as a cornerstone of stability. "The US stands with all of the children throughout the world," she said, calling education "sacred" and arguing that nations that protect books and science safeguard their future. She also pitched artificial intelligence as a potential "great equalizer," pressing governments to expand access to knowledge.
The Guardian notes that the first lady called for nations to protect children's access to education just two days after an airstrike on a girls' school in southern Iran killed at least 165 people, according to Iranian state media. Most countries on the Security Council didn't mention the war on Monday, with France's envoy comparing her to Eleanor Roosevelt and even Russia's representative offering only "polite praise," per AFP. She posed for a photo with the 15 member state representatives before the meeting.
Before the meeting, however, Iran's ambassador to the UN said, "It is deeply shameful and hypocritical that on the very first day of its presidency of the Security Council, the United States convened a high-level meeting on protecting children." The US is holding the council's rotating presidency last month and the first lady's meeting was scheduled before the war began. The AP reports that in her remarks, she drew a connection between knowledge and peace, saying, "Enduring peace will be achieved when knowledge and understanding are fully valued within all our societies."
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