Trump claims that the US and Iran met for three hours at the UN and threatens to 'annihilate' the country if there is no agreement

Mixed signals about the future of the war in Iran, at the United Nations General Assembly. The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has assured that representatives of his government and that of Iran have met this Tuesday on the sidelines of the world leaders' meeting, for three hours. Just a few hours before, he himself had threatened in his speech at the conclave to “annihilate” the enemy country if an agreement is not reached. Meanwhile, Iran has assured that it is willing to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days if the United States reduces military pressure and lifts its blockade on Iranian ports.

The situation in the Persian Gulf and the open double front - the Strait of Hormuz and the Houthi rebels' offensive against Saudi Arabia and to try to gain control of access to the Red Sea - around the Arabian Peninsula is the big issue that the US president planned to address in his meeting with the Arab countries in the area in one of the last acts of his visit to the United Nations.

The meeting between Americans and Iranians was led, by Washington, by Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and the presidential envoy for conflicts, Steve Witkoff, as revealed by the president during a meeting with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky. "It ended an hour ago. It was a meeting that lasted three hours. It was a very good meeting," Trump noted. According to the White House tenant, a second meeting is planned “in the near future.”

In another previous meeting, with the British Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, Trump had acknowledged the existence of contacts. "They want to talk to us. They have been talking to us, even today they have been talking to us," he declared. "But we can't let them, and they understand it, we can't let them have a nuclear weapon."

Just a couple of hours earlier he had once again raised the prospect of devastating the enemy country. Before world leaders gathered at the General Assembly, no less. Before the greatest global symbol of multilateralism. “I have a big decision to make,” he noted: either reach an agreement with Iran or “annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, to never again give them the opportunity to kill and destroy people and countries.” Even so, he has called on the rest of the countries to economically isolate Iran and has assured that, if that happens, the price of hydrocarbons will drop drastically.

The details of an agreement to end hostilities with Washington can be negotiated through mediators in New York, as stressed early in the morning by a senior Iranian official who is part of the delegation that has traveled to the United States to attend the United Nations General Assembly and who has been quoted by Reuters. Tehran's proposal, always according to this source, was transmitted to the United States through intermediaries last Wednesday.

“The United Nations General Assembly is a golden opportunity for the United States to return to diplomacy,” said the official, who added that Tehran would welcome the resumption of diplomatic channels if Washington takes concrete measures. “The US has to announce that it wants to resolve the issue diplomatically, do so officially and then agree on a timetable for how the process will move forward.” The Iranian delegation in New York has full powers to reactivate the diplomatic channel.

The news has been felt in the price of oil, with the reference barrel in Europe falling three percentage points - it has gone from rising 1% to falling more than 2% - and is around 98 dollars, leaving behind the 100 barrier. Also contributing to this drop is the news that Saudi Arabia has resumed operations on its East-West oil pipeline and is preparing to resume exports from the strategic port of Yanbu, on the Red Sea.

Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian, who left Tehran on Tuesday morning, is not scheduled to meet with Trump. However, both the Republican magnate - on Sunday - and his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio - this Tuesday - have shown themselves willing to sit down with the delegation of the Islamic Republic in New York.

Last Saturday, Iran's Secretary of National Security assured in an interview with the Qatari media Al Jazeera that his country's conditions for negotiating an agreement were "the end of the war on all fronts, the release of our frozen funds and the end of the naval blockade." And he clarified that these points were transmitted to the United States with Qatar as a mediator.

A day later, Iran's central military command said it had been informed that the United States was preparing to resume military operations with the support of countries in the region and warned that this would provoke retaliation from Tehran "without limitations or considerations."