US President Donald Trump, speaking at the UN on Tuesday, said he believed the United States would sign a peace deal with Iran after the November 3 midterm congressional elections.
In addition to Iran, Trump touched on the war in Ukraine, the fate of Cuba and the new Greenland agreement in his speech, and also proposed renaming artificial intelligence.
“I think we will make a deal [with Iran] immediately after the elections, because it makes no sense for them not to make one. They are waiting to see how I do in the midterm elections,” Trump said.
Tehran did not comment on Trump’s statement, but the American leader himself said after the speech that US and Iranian officials met in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session for the first time in several months (as the Financial Times clarifies, since the end of June).
Washington was represented at the meeting by Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, and Tehran by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
In his speech from the UN rostrum, Donald Trump said that he had to make an important decision: destroy Iran or conclude an agreement with it.
“I will have to make an important decision. Will there be a deal with Iran that will allow them to rebuild the country and make it much greater than it has ever been,” the US President said, “or should I destroy the Islamic Republic, and do it quickly, so that they can no longer kill people and destroy countries?”
“Should we give them hell with no chance of survival, no hope for future greatness and future generations? But I think we will make a deal right after the election,” Trump continued.
Trump called on other countries of the world to maintain pressure on Iran, and also once again stated that the United States, by starting a war against Iran, prevented it from developing nuclear weapons.
Iran, while developing its nuclear program, at the same time invariably assured that it was peaceful in nature and it did not intend to create nuclear weapons.
A New Promise for Peace in Ukraine
Touching on the topic of Russia's war with Ukraine, Donald Trump again promised a quick peace, but this time he did not give a time frame.
“We are working very closely with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine, and we will do this. This [peace agreement] will happen, I think, sooner than many people think,” Trump said.
The US President also recalled the law on “hellish sanctions” he signed on Friday.
“Last week, in honor of Senator Lindsey Graham, I signed a powerful new law passed by Congress that gives me enormous new tariff powers—and if necessary, I will use them […] It's time to stop the carnage,” Trump said.
Cuba - change of power
Touching on the topic of Cuba, Trump said that his administration is seeking to overthrow the communist regime on the island.
“My administration is seeking fundamental change in the situation in Cuba, whose communist regime is under great pressure - the most pressure it has ever been under. This is a completely failed state, it is failing like never before, and it will fall,” said the US President.
“Communism will never come to America, but freedom will come to Cuba,” Reuters quoted Trump as saying.
The Cuban delegation left the hall during Trump's speech.
Greenland Agreement
On Tuesday, Trump signed an agreement at the UN on the US presence in Greenland. It was announced late last week that the US and Denmark had reached an agreement on this.
Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said at the signing that Greenland sees the threats Trump has previously talked about and that it is critical for NATO to maintain a strong position in the Arctic.
Donald Trump said that now, after signing this agreement, the United States will have much more stable relations with both Denmark and Greenland.
"Superintelligence"
Touching on the topic of artificial intelligence, Trump invited the whole world to rename it, and also said, responding in absentia to calls from the heads of leading AI development companies, that the United States is not going to limit its development.
“We will push his development, not discourage him. We will be monitoring this closely with the Department of Justice. The United States leads the world in superintelligence, and we will continue to lead by doing it safely and responsibly,” Trump said.
The US President proposed calling super-powerful models not “artificial intelligence”, but “superintelligence” [artificial intelligence - superintelligence].
“From now on, in all documents of the United States and, I hope, the whole world, the much more precise definition of “super” will be used instead of “artificial,” Trump said. “Welcome to the new world of superintelligence.”
Meetings with Zelensky, Burnham and others
Following his UNGA speech, Trump is scheduled to meet with more than a dozen foreign leaders on Tuesday, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and British Prime Minister Andy Burnham. Trump will also speak with representatives of six Gulf countries, the prime ministers of Denmark and Greenland and Venezuela's interim leader Delcy Rodriguez.
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