IS top of the agenda at UN

Once a year, the world’s crises arrive on Manhattan’s doorstep. They bring with them traffic snarls, and a police presence on every street corner.

Foreign secretaries, undersecretaries and diplomats all dash for their seats in the general assembly.  The global bandwidth is crackling with crises. From Ebola to the Islamic State.

President Obama arrives to deliver nothing less than a call to war against extremism.  Exhorting nations to join the United States in its campaign against the jihadists of the Islamic State.

Obama broke bread with his new Arab allies last night – even as their air forces sent another round of missiles toward Islamic State targets close to the Syrian border with Iraq.

Not at the table – not even in the alliance – but certainly in the fight in Iraq – Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani who sat down today with British Prime Minister David Cameron.  The first meeting between the leaders of the two countries in 35 years.

Even as Britain is drawn toward war, persuaded by the threat of the Islamic State,  Nato’s secretary general described the campaign with airstrikes as necessary in both Syria and Iraq.