Trump Warns Iran at UN, Talks Hormuz With Araghchi
The US president told the UN General Assembly he could destroy Iran, while his envoys spent three hours the same day negotiating with Iran's foreign minister over the Strait of Hormuz.
US President Donald Trump again threatened on Tuesday, September 22, from the podium of the UN General Assembly in New York, that he could “destroy” the Islamic Republic of Iran, as the US and Israeli war against Iran enters its eighth month. This is not just a headline from the other side of the world: the Strait of Hormuz, whose status was being negotiated in the UN’s corridors that same day, is one of the world’s key oil routes, and any change there feeds through to energy prices that importers in Serbia end up paying too.
“Iran is the bully of the Middle East, but it’s no longer the bully,” Trump said in his speech. When he asked the hall whether he should “destroy the Islamic Republic,” most of the Iranian delegation walked out, all but one member, according to France 24. Shortly afterward, the Cuban delegation also left the hall, after Trump called Cuba a “failed state” and predicted it would “fall.”
Trump devoted most of his speech to Iran’s nuclear program. “From the first day I entered politics, I have been unwavering. I will never allow Iran to have nuclear weapons,” he told the General Assembly. On the pace of the negotiations, he said he did not expect a deal before the November congressional elections. “I believe we’ll reach a deal right after the election, because it makes no sense for them not to do it,” Trump said.
While Trump was speaking in the hall, the first confirmed US, Iran contact since the war began was taking place on the sidelines of the session. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi spent about three hours, according to Trump, in talks with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and adviser Jared Kushner. After the meeting, Trump told reporters: “The intermediaries were here. Not at the highest level, but it’s something… A lot of good ideas, and a lot of things are going very well.”
Accounts of the meeting’s format differ. Iranian state television and the WANA news agency say it was a direct meeting between Araghchi and Witkoff, held “at the request and insistence of the American side,” aimed at letting Tehran convey its terms for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Fox News and Israel National News, on the other hand, describe indirect talks, with intermediaries relaying messages between the two delegations throughout the day, and Witkoff himself described the meeting as mediated. “They successfully completed a round of talks that we hope will prove constructive and promising,” Witkoff said, according to Israel National News. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said earlier that day that no meeting was scheduled, and Trump later confirmed that one had in fact taken place. “I think the president is open to meeting with him, or with anyone,” Rubio said, speaking about a possible meeting with the Iranian president.
According to Iranian state media, Tehran laid out three conditions for opening the Strait of Hormuz: an immediate end to the American naval blockade, the immediate release of all frozen Iranian assets abroad, and an end to the war on every front Iran calls a front of “resistance.” Fox News reports that Iranian officials mentioned the possibility of opening the strait “within a few days” if the conditions are met, while an unnamed senior Iranian official told Reuters the timeline could be seven days, provided the US scales back its military pressure and lifts the blockade of Iranian ports.
Trump announced that the next round of talks would be scheduled “in the very near future,” and said he would “probably” meet with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Iranian officials, however, say no such meeting is scheduled or planned. Srpske Novine previously reported on a statement by Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf that the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, which makes the current negotiations over the terms for reopening it the first concrete movement since that statement was made.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, meanwhile, has arrived in New York and is addressing the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, September 23, for the first time since the US and Israel launched their war against Iran. Whether he will meet with Trump, and when the next round of talks over the Strait of Hormuz will be scheduled, remains an open question.
