President Donald Trump told leaders and senior officials from 12 Middle Eastern countries that negotiations with Iran were gaining momentum as the expanded U.N. gathering addressed the nearly seven-month war, the Strait of Hormuz, Yemen and broader regional security.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
President Donald Trump told an expanded group of Middle Eastern leaders Tuesday that there was “a lot of momentum” toward an agreement with Iran, striking a more diplomatic note hours after warning Tehran from the United Nations podium that failure to reach a settlement could bring further U.S. military action.
The White House formally described the New York gathering as a multilateral meeting with the Gulf Cooperation Council, but the roundtable extended considerably beyond the six-member Gulf organization. Senior representatives from 12 Middle Eastern countries participated on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman represented the GCC. Iraq, Jordan, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt also sent senior officials, placing governments directly affected by the Iran conflict and other regional crises around the same table with Trump.
The gathering followed lengthy contacts between U.S. and Iranian representatives earlier Tuesday. Trump described those discussions as productive and said they had increased prospects for an eventual settlement.
“We will see what happens with that. I think there’s a lot of momentum for them to make a deal. That’s what we are hearing from everybody,” Trump said.
Trump also repeated his view that an end to the conflict could come after the November elections.
“We think the situation in Iran can end after the midterm elections,” Trump said during the meeting.
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff later clarified that the day’s negotiations had been conducted through mediators rather than as continuous direct talks between the American and Iranian delegations.
“Today, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, we engaged in lengthy talks with the Iranian delegation through the mediators, who shuttled between the two sides throughout the day,” Witkoff said. He said the mediators had completed a round of discussions and would continue their work.
Preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon remained at the center of Trump’s explanation for the U.S. military campaign.
“A big portion of what we’ve done — maybe 99 percent of it — is to make sure that Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
Trump also reiterated that the United States could attack Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain nuclear facility if Washington detected increased activity there, while saying the administration was not currently seeing substantial activity at the site.
Those remarks came only hours after Trump used his General Assembly address to present Tehran with a stark choice between negotiating an agreement and facing potentially devastating additional military action.
“But I have a big decision to make,” Trump said during the earlier speech. “Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before? Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic, and do it quickly?”
Trump defended the U.S. campaign against Iran during the address while also maintaining that a negotiated settlement remained possible.
For the Gulf governments represented at Tuesday’s meeting, ending the conflict is tied closely to restoring security to regional shipping and energy infrastructure, particularly the Strait of Hormuz.
Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani used his General Assembly address to call for renewed diplomacy and the reopening of the strategic waterway, arguing that the region’s recurring crises also demonstrate the need for a broader collective-security structure.
Qatar has played a central mediation role between Washington and Tehran. Iranian officials said Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi conveyed Tehran’s conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz to Witkoff during the New York diplomatic contacts.
According to Iranian state media, those conditions included lifting the U.S. naval blockade, releasing frozen Iranian assets and ending the conflict across what Tehran calls the “resistance” fronts.
The status of Hormuz is particularly consequential for Gulf economies because of the volume of international oil and gas shipments normally moving through the waterway. Disruptions associated with the Iran conflict have increased shipping costs and placed additional pressure on energy markets.
Yemen presented another security concern surrounding Trump’s talks with regional governments.
Saudi Arabia has faced an advancing campaign by Iran-backed Houthi forces, including attacks affecting Saudi territory and energy infrastructure. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had pressed Trump for American military strikes against the Houthis, but Trump decided not to authorize the operation, at least for the time being. Reporting on the decision said the administration had considered U.S. strikes before ultimately holding back.
The Houthis have continued seeking control of strategic areas in Yemen, including highlands that could threaten Saudi-backed forces and further complicate access to the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab shipping corridor. Saudi Arabia and several regional governments have simultaneously emphasized their right to defend themselves while calling for diplomatic efforts to contain the wider conflict.
The leaders meeting Trump were also arriving in New York amid a separate diplomatic effort over Gaza.
Foreign ministers from Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan met Monday and called for implementation of the first phase of the Comprehensive Plan for Gaza. Their joint statement called for immediate, safe and unhindered humanitarian assistance, delivery of early-recovery supplies and rehabilitation of critical infrastructure.
The eight governments also called for continued implementation of the plan’s road map, including subsequent steps involving Israeli withdrawal, an International Stabilization Force, administration of Gaza by the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza and reconstruction.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II separately used his General Assembly speech to sharply criticize Israeli policies in the West Bank.
“What is unfolding across the West Bank is not a series of isolated acts. It is elements of a single policy to compel an entire population to leave their land,” Abdullah said.
“And there is a name for that: forced displacement.
“And that is a war crime.”
Those statements reflected Jordan’s position and were separate from Trump’s meeting with the 12 Middle Eastern delegations.
The expanded Tuesday roundtable nevertheless brought many of the governments involved in those overlapping disputes into one meeting. Iran and Israel were among the notable regional countries not represented at the gathering.
The central focus remained the Iran conflict and whether the diplomatic exchanges taking place in New York could produce an agreement after months of fighting.
Trump entered the meeting having threatened substantially greater military action against Tehran earlier in the day but left open a parallel diplomatic path, telling the assembled leaders that his administration was hearing signs of increased willingness to reach a settlement.
That combination of negotiations and continued military warnings placed the Iran talks, freedom of navigation through Hormuz and the broader security of the Gulf at the center of the discussions as regional governments sought to prevent the conflict from expanding further.
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