Iran is at the forefront of the diplomatic scene in New York, with its President Masoud Pezeshkian delivering his speech before the United Nations General Assembly, on Wednesday, after pledging to “firmly defend” his country’s positions.
The international community will follow with great interest Pezeshkian’s speech from the United Nations podium, the day after US President Donald Trump announced “very productive” talks between Iranian and American officials in New York.
Diplomatic efforts have so far failed to reach an agreement that would put an end to the war that broke out with the United States and Israel launching strikes on Iran on February 28, and then spread to the Middle East, and is currently mainly focused around the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has closed since the start of the conflict.
Trump reported on Tuesday that a meeting between the two sides lasted three hours, with the participation of US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, without specifying the identity of the Iranian leaders who attended the meeting.
Trump said: “It was a very good and productive meeting. We will see how things turn out.”
He added: "I think there is great momentum to reach an agreement."
Trump announced the resumption of dialogue with Tehran during a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The US President confirmed that other talks are scheduled to be held "in the very near future."
US envoy Steve Witkoff, who attended the press conference next to Trump and who participated in that meeting, said he felt “very optimistic” about these talks, but he did not provide further details.
On the other hand, Iranian media reported that the Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, met with Witkoff and informed him of Tehran’s conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian state television quoted Araqchi as telling Witkopf that Tehran's demands include "the immediate lifting of the US naval blockade imposed on Iranian ports, the urgent payment of all frozen Iranian assets, and an end to the war on all resistance fronts."
These statements came after a speech Trump delivered before the General Assembly, in which he focused specifically on the ongoing war with Iran.
During his speech before the United Nations General Assembly, Donald Trump said that he had two options: either “eliminating” Iran or reaching an agreement, but he expected to find a diplomatic solution after the midterm elections scheduled for next November.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Iranian Armed Forces rejected Trump's threatening statements at the United Nations, describing them as "propaganda," saying that their response was "full readiness to direct harsher, more powerful, and more unpredictable strikes against the aggressors."
The US President is scheduled to meet today with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, who left Beijing on a private plane this afternoon on a state visit to the United States, in response to Trump’s invitation, according to what was reported by the official Chinese “Xinhua” news agency.
President Xi is accompanied on this visit by: his wife, Peng Liyuan; Cai Qi, Member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee; Wang Yi, Member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Minister of Foreign Affairs; Along with other officials.
This comes in conjunction with reports of an Iranian plane landing in China on Wednesday, despite the United States’ threat to impose sanctions on those providing services to Iranian airlines, as confirmed by flight tracking systems, according to Agence France-Presse.
On Tuesday, President Trump also met with leaders of Arab and Islamic countries seeking to restore shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world's oil and gas supplies passed before the outbreak of war in the Gulf region.
The meeting held by Trump, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meetings, included the leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, Turkey, Indonesia, and Pakistan.
A number of these countries host huge American military bases, which have been subjected to repeated Iranian attacks throughout the war.
Trump said during his meeting with the leaders: “We believe that the situation with Iran may end immediately after the midterm elections (for Congress on November 3), and perhaps before that. I don’t know. You can never know.”
The US President was quoted after the meeting as saying that the meeting was important.
For his part, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who participated in the meeting, said that the meeting focused on ending the war in Gaza and reaching a permanent ceasefire, pointing out that it was “very productive.”
Speaking to reporters in New York after the meeting, Erdogan said that a joint statement issued by the meeting would be published and that he was “pleased” with its results, but he did not go into details, according to what Reuters reported.
On Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron rejected US President Donald Trump’s talk about achieving peace in the Gaza Strip.
In his final speech before the United Nations before his term ends next year, Macron said that no humanitarian corridor in the Strip had been reopened despite the declared peace.
