US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held a meeting in New York lasting about three hours with intermediaries representing Iran. He described the talks as “very good and very productive” and said another meeting would be held soon, while leaving open the possibility of military action against an Iranian nuclear facility.
During a meeting with leaders and representatives of Arab and Islamic countries in New York, Trump described Witkoff and Kushner’s meeting with an Iranian delegation as “excellent”. He said Tehran faced two options, one of them “very bad” and the other leading to “greatness”, in his words, without specifying the nature of either option.
Steve and Jared held a very productive meeting today with intermediaries representing Iran, just intermediaries. Let’s see what comes of it.
Trump links agreement to Iran’s economic isolation
During the same meeting, the US president predicted that the war with Iran would end after the US midterm elections. He also said his country had imposed complete economic isolation on Tehran, claiming that his administration had “completely eliminated the terrorist leadership” and destroyed Iran’s economy, and that inflation in Iran had reached 300% while its currency collapsed. He described this as part of the process of “economic isolation”.
Trump praised the US Treasury Department’s performance in this context, saying it had done “a great job”. He added that Washington had completely isolated Iran economically and was continuing to pressure it to make what he called the right decision quickly “before it is too late”.
Washington keeps targeting nuclear facility as an option
Alongside his comments on the prospects of an agreement, Trump referred to the Iranian facility known as “Mount Axe” and said the United States could attack it if it detected significant nuclear activity there. He added clearly: “We will bomb the Iranian Mount Axe facility if necessary.” Trump said that much of what the United States had done, “perhaps 99% of it”, was aimed at ensuring Iran did not possess a nuclear weapon.
He added that some sites had already been destroyed and that Washington might have to destroy another site he called “Mount Beqaks”. He said no significant activity was currently being detected there, but that it would be destroyed immediately if any activity were detected, according to him.
Witkoff confirms indirect contacts are continuing
US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff said in a post on the “X” platform that he and Kushner had held lengthy talks with the Iranian delegation on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meetings, through intermediaries who moved between the two sides throughout the day. Witkoff described the round of discussions as successful, expressing hope that it would be constructive and promising. He confirmed that the intermediaries would continue their work, indicating that indirect contacts would continue after the New York meeting.
Trump had said on Tuesday that the United States and Iran had held talks, expressing his belief that the two sides would reach a settlement. He made the comments after meeting British Prime Minister Andy Burnham at the UN headquarters in New York.
In his address to the UN General Assembly, Trump described Iran as “the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism”. He said, in his words: “I have to make a big decision about obliterating Iran or allowing it to prosper,” thereby combining talk of the possibility of a settlement with continued threats of military and economic escalation.
