+++ News in the Iran War +++: USA and Iran resume talks

ap | For the first time since the ceasefire collapsed in June, representatives of the USA and Iran met again for direct talks as part of the general debate at the UN General Assembly in New York. However, the meeting was marred by mutual threats. US President Donald Trump had previously threatened Iran with “destruction” if an agreement was not reached soon to end the war, which has been going on for almost seven months.

Trump said his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with Iranian representatives for around three hours on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. However, he provided few details about the discussions. “It was a very good meeting,” Trump said. They were not the highest-ranking representatives of Tehran. “But it’s something.”

Witkoff wrote on X that the talks were conducted through intermediaries who moved back and forth between the American and Iranian delegations. He hoped that the talks would “prove constructive and promising”.

After the short-lived ceasefire collapsed in June, communication between Washington and Tehran largely stalled. At the beginning of July, US and Iranian negotiators met separately in Doha with mediators from Qatar and Pakistan for indirect talks.

The Iranian military command described Trump's threats as "domestic propaganda" that does not reflect the reality on the ground. The repeated threats from Washington demonstrated “strategic desperation.” Iran is prepared to inflict “even more severe, devastating and unpredictable blows” on the USA and Israel.

Iranian President Massoud Peseschkian also struck a confrontational tone before his departure for the UN general debate. The US is doing “everything it can” to force Iran to give up. They were unable to do this through military means, he said, according to Iranian state media. At the same time, he expressed reservations about a new round of negotiations.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Trump was open to meeting Peseschkian in New York. "This is a president who basically meets with everyone because he believes that if you want to solve problems, it's important to have conversations with people," Rubio said on NBC's "Today." “It doesn’t mean you end up agreeing, but it’s important.”

Trump also met with representatives of the Gulf Cooperation Council member states - Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates - as well as Jordan to discuss how to proceed in the war against Iran. The council called for an end to Iranian attacks and allied militias on the Arab states in the Persian Gulf. Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandab Strait must also be possible again unhindered, said Secretary General Jasim al-Budaiwi.

A senior Iranian military adviser later rejected the claims. The situation at the Bab al-Mandab Strait will not return to its former normal given the conflict between Israel, the United States and the Iranian-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen, Major General Jahja Rahim Safawi told Iranian state radio.

The US has not achieved its goal regarding the Strait of Hormuz and is now faced with a new problem: the Bab al-Mandab Strait, said Safawi. A reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is linked to the fulfillment of Iranian conditions. Due to military pressure from the USA, the important strait will not be reopened.

In his speech at the UN general debate, Trump again threatened Iran with escalation. He is faced with the “big decision” whether to conclude an agreement with Tehran that would enable the country to rebuild or to quickly “destroy” the Islamic Republic. Members of the Iranian delegation left the room during his remarks.