As leaders meet in New York, the fate of the world may rest on Trump and Xi

In coming days, presidents and prime ministers from an estimated 130 countries will come together in New York.

But during this time there will be only one meeting that could determine the immediate fate of the world: that will be in Washington between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

For the leaders gathering in New York at the United Nations General Assembly, there are of course major issues to be discussed: a suddenly expressed panic over artificial intelligence (AI), the Iran war and its resulting crisis in the world energy market, erratic immigration flows and climate change being among them.

On the Iran war, the reality is that Trump is unable to end it. It takes two to end a war, and at this moment the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) which runs Iran does not want the conflict to end.

The IRGC wants to inflict as much political punishment as possible on Trump for what they believe have been unjustified attacks on their infrastructure and civilians. These attacks include the suspected US strikes on an Iranian school that killed 120 school children, an attack which the UN last week determined could amount to a war crime .

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian will address the UN on the home turf of the country it remains at war with, while at the same time, the US has blocked Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas from attending the same summit designed to be a global gathering to promote international peace .

This alone is extraordinary, the United States is allowing the leader of a country with which it is at war to enter New York while preventing the leader of the moderate faction of the Palestinians from attending, for the second consecutive year.

Abbas's Palestinian Authority is a bitter opponent of Hamas, and for years American officials have wanted the moderates to be embraced as part of trying to find a way towards a two-state solution.

But now not even a moderate Palestinian leader is allowed into the US.

As is increasingly the case in this new world order, China is likely to prove yet again to be a key player.

It was China who brought together Iran and Saudi Arabia in Beijing three years ago to encourage them to drop the ancient Shia-Sunni rivalry, so it is China who could mediate between the US and Iran. But only if it so chooses.

So far, China's economy has not been badly impacted by the Iran war as it has enormous oil and petrol reserves.

But should the war drag into next year, as many in Washington expect it might , then China will have a real reason to pressure Iran to end the war because by then, its own oil reserves will start to diminish. China has a much greater ability to bring an end to this war than the US.

That is yet another indication that China is challenging the supremacy of the US in international matters.