US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said President Donald Trump was open to meeting Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who arrives in New York on Tuesday to attend the UN General Assembly meetings, as international efforts seek to revive talks between Washington and Tehran, end the war and restore shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
In remarks to US broadcaster CNN, Waltz said Trump was “always open” to diplomacy and negotiations with Iran, but added that the question was how willing Tehran was to sit directly with US officials. He said continued uncertainty over who speaks on behalf of Iran’s Supreme Leader remained an ongoing problem for any negotiating process.
Trump is expected to address delegates attending the General Assembly meetings on Tuesday, before holding bilateral and group meetings with at least 11 world leaders. The war involving the United States and Israel against Iran is likely to top his talks with allies, given its political and economic repercussions.
According to the information available, the war has driven up fuel prices worldwide and reduced Trump’s approval ratings, while also posing a challenge to Republican candidates in the congressional midterm elections scheduled for November. Alongside the talk of diplomacy, Waltz said the United States would continue its “economic pariah” operation to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Revolutionary Guard links negotiations to national interest
If our national interest requires us to negotiate alongside the war, then we must negotiate. We will not communicate with the United States as a military institution, even if it requests that
At the same time, the Revolutionary Guard warned against any US-Israeli military escalation and threatened to respond with “strikes in different arenas and by various means”, in a position that combines keeping the door to negotiations open with a warning against expanding military operations.
Warnings of escalation and the repercussions of the war
Pezeshkian is due to arrive in New York later on Tuesday to attend the General Assembly meetings, seeking to present his country’s position on the continuing military tensions with Washington and the crisis over the administration of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital passage for global energy shipments. The Iranian president is scheduled to address the General Assembly on Wednesday.
Pezeshkian is the highest-ranking Iranian official to travel to the United States since the war in the Middle East began, following US and Israeli strikes on Iran in February. Tehran has not announced arrangements for meetings between him and US officials, including Trump. Before leaving Iran, Pezeshkian said: “We emerged from the war with our heads held high, and this is a source of dignity and pride for us all.
That is why we will firmly defend our positions in international forums.” He added that his country had sat at the negotiating table and signed agreements on several occasions, but that the world had witnessed, in his words, a failure to honour commitments and a disregard for written agreements. The Iranian president accused those he called “enemies” of trying to exploit internal ethnic divisions to force Iran into submission after, he said, they had failed to achieve their aims through military means.
He said: “Peoples cannot be subjugated by force and coercion. The ongoing events in Gaza, Palestine, Syria, Yemen, Iran and elsewhere reveal facts that the global public sees.” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had arrived in New York on Monday at the head of his country’s diplomatic delegation.
Pezeshkian to present Iran’s position in New York
He said the delegation’s most important objective was to use this major international platform to defend what he described as the Iranian people’s legitimate rights, as well as protect his country’s interests during diplomatic meetings and contacts. Reopening the Strait of Hormuz remains at the forefront of the dispute between Tehran and Washington.
Since the war began, Iran has largely closed the strait, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas exports passed before the fighting. The United States, meanwhile, is imposing a blockade on Iranian ports while intensifying its economic pressure on Tehran.
Strait of Hormuz crisis weighs on international negotiations
Several countries, including Qatar and Pakistan, are working on the sidelines of the New York meetings to revive mediation between the United States and Iran and push the two sides to resume negotiations and reach an agreement that would formally end the war. Araghchi arrived in Doha on Sunday evening before travelling to New York as part of the diplomatic efforts linked to the crisis.
Iran says it has conveyed to the United States through Qatar the conditions it requires for reopening the Strait of Hormuz to shipping. In New York, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari said Doha was seeking to facilitate an agreement between Washington and Tehran, even if it were short-term, to pave the way for broader negotiations.
In a parallel move, French President Emmanuel Macron said he had agreed with Trump to work to ease tensions in markets by protecting infrastructure in the Middle East. Diplomatic sources in New York also said France was preparing a new draft resolution at the UN Security Council aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz to shipping.
A diplomatic source said: “France wants to work with the Americans and its partners on a Security Council resolution guaranteeing freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.” The move comes after Russia and China used their vetoes in April to block a draft resolution prepared by Bahrain with the backing of Gulf states and the United States, which likewise called for the strait to be reopened.
