US and Iranian officials held direct talks on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, even as President Donald Trump used his address to the world body to threaten to "annihilate" Iran if diplomacy fails. The meeting — the first direct contact between the two sides since June — came hours after Trump told assembled world leaders he faced a stark "big decision" between helping Iran rebuild or destroying it entirely. "Do I drive them into hell?" Trump asked delegates, before later telling reporters that American envoys had held a "very productive" three-hour meeting with the Iranian delegation.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff, who represented Washington alongside Jared Kushner, described the talks as having been conducted through Qatari mediators who "shuttled between the two sides throughout the day". Iran confirmed that Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met Witkoff, and Iranian state media reported that Tehran used the meeting to present its conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow waterway between the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf through which roughly a fifth of global oil and gas supplies once flowed before the Gulf conflict began. Those conditions included the lifting of the US naval blockade of Iranian ports, the release of frozen Iranian assets, and an end to military operations on what Tehran calls the "resistance" fronts. A senior Iranian official told reporters that Iran could reopen the strait within seven days if Washington took reciprocal steps to ease military and economic pressure — terms described as somewhat less stringent than those previously put forward by other senior Iranian figures.
Behind the scenes, Qatar and Pakistan were working to reduce tensions and protect freedom of navigation, while Oman has also been involved in maritime diplomacy over the waterway. Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani met Araghchi separately in New York, and a Qatari proposal for a broader Gulf security framework involving Iran was reported to be under consideration. Trump also held a multilateral meeting with leaders from Gulf Cooperation Council states, Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Indonesia and Pakistan to discuss regional security and the prospects for ending the war.
Despite the diplomatic activity, significant gaps remain. Iran's armed forces issued a statement dismissing Trump's UN threats as "propaganda" and evidence of "strategic weakness", warning they stood ready to deliver "more severe, crushing, and unpredictable blows". Divisions were also visible within Tehran, with media close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps denying that any softened negotiating position had been adopted, reflecting an internal struggle between hardliners and those, including President Masoud Pezeshkian, more open to a deal. Iran's UNGA delegation walked out of the hall during Trump's speech after he described Iran as "the bully of the Middle East".
Why this matters: the UNGA sidelines meeting is the most significant direct diplomatic contact between Washington and Tehran since a memorandum of understanding collapsed in June, and it signals that both sides retain some appetite for a negotiated end to a conflict that has severely disrupted global energy markets. Trump suggested a deal could follow the US midterm elections in November, and Witkoff struck a cautiously optimistic note, saying mediators would continue their work. Whether the momentum survives the deep mistrust on both sides — and the competing pressures within Tehran — remains the central question.