UNITED NATIONS (AP) — President Donald Trump said U.S. and Iranian officials met on Tuesday, shortly after threatening in his address to the U.N. General Assembly that he may “annihilate” the Islamic Republic if a deal isn’t reached soon to end the nearly seven-month war.
Trump confirmed the talks in an exchange with reporters on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders but he offered few details about how the discussions transpired, who was involved, or the substance of the exchange.
“It was a very good meeting,” Trump said.
The confirmed engagement comes after months of U.S.-Iran communications languishing following the collapse of a short-lived ceasefire that was brokered on June 17.
U.S. and Iranian negotiators met separately with Qatari and Pakistani mediators in Doha in early July for indirect talks.
Separately, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that Trump is open to meeting with Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, while he’s in New York for the General Assembly.
“This is a president that will meet with anybody for the most part, because he believes that engaging with people is important if you’re going to solve problems,” Rubio said on NBC’s “Today” show. “It doesn’t mean you’re going to end up agreeing with them, but it’s important.”
In his address to the General Assembly, Trump made the case that he’s shown fortitude while other leaders have equivocated as he defended his decision to start a war with Iran.
But Trump also suggested that he could be at a crossroads in the conflict even as he called on the Islamic Republic to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz and return to the negotiating table to find a settlement to end the conflict.
“I have a big decision to make,” Trump said. “Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before, maybe one of the greatest in the Middle East or even the world. Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again?”
The president’s comments came in his wide-ranging address to the international body in which he also celebrated this year’s U.S. military operation to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power, a new agreement to expand the U.S. military presence in Greenland, and pushed back against calls for greater regulation of the artificial intelligence industry.
But at the heart of the address was a fulsome defense of the war and pushback on the notion that Iran has shown a measure of resilience.
“The terrorist regime is behaving badly, not because they are strong and confident, but because they are weak and desperate,” Trump said.
Most of Iran’s delegation walked out of the chamber as Trump railed against the Islamic Republic.
Trump’s speech began a busy day of diplomacy
After his speech, Trump gathered with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen on the sidelines of the General Assembly to sign a new security agreement.
The deal, announced last week, came together after Trump repeatedly threatened to “take over” Greenland, a territory of NATO-ally Denmark, by military force if necessary. Trump said Tuesday the U.S. will immediately begin the process of developing a larger military presence in Greenland including “building two very major military bases.”
