Trump at UN: "Be Annihilated or Make a Deal"... Iranian Delegation Walks Out Over "Hell" Remarks
Trump spoke on Sept. 22 local time as the second speaker, after Brazil, in the keynote address at the high-level session of the UN General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York. "I have a major decision to make," Trump said. "Do I make a deal with Iran and let them rebuild their nation and make it far greater than ever before, or do I swiftly annihilate them so they never again have the chance to murder people and destroy nations, driving them into hell with no chance of survival, no future prosperity and no hope for their descendants?" The message was that Iran must choose one of two options: a deal with the U.S. or destruction. At that remark, Iran's delegation in the hall walked out, leaving behind only a single working-level mission staffer. It was highly unusual for a speaker to hurl invective such as "annihilate" and "hell" at a specific country from the General Assembly podium before assembled heads of state. Trump went further: "I will never allow Iran to possess a nuclear weapon," he said. "I urge all nations to join in the complete economic isolation of Iran until it halts attacks on merchant ships, abandons its nuclear ambitions and stops sponsoring terror."
Even so, Trump argued, "I believe a deal will be reached right after the election, because it makes no sense for Iran not to do so." He added: "Cowards and traitors would like to say America is running low on ammunition, but that is not true. We have more ammunition than you could possibly imagine, and we are producing it on an unprecedented scale." On the war in Ukraine, Trump also pledged that "both sides are now exhausted" and that it would "be resolved far sooner than people think."
Of Cuba, Trump delivered the verdict of "a completely failed state." "Cuba is under the greatest pressure it has ever faced," he said. "Secretary of State Marco Rubio is conducting in-depth negotiations, so let's see what happens." He went on to attack the island's government: "The Cuban regime has worked with America's leftist radicals and communist networks for decades. They cultivated ties with subversive and radical organizations such as the Communist Party USA and the Democratic Socialists." At those remarks, Cuba's delegation also left the hall.
Beyond Cuba, Trump cited Mexico and Venezuela in stressing that the U.S. must cement its status as the hegemonic power in the Western Hemisphere. Pointing to the January capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the sinking of drug-running vessels across the Caribbean and operations against Latin American drug cartels, Trump declared that the U.S. "will no longer allow any force hostile to the United States to gain a foothold anywhere in the Western Hemisphere." He described Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, as "the northern frontier of North America" and a Western Hemisphere region that should fall under U.S. influence.
On artificial intelligence, Trump framed the issue above all as a competition with China. He also made clear his opposition to calls for slowing down recently voiced by U.S. closed-model AI firms including Anthropic, maker of Claude; OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT; Google, maker of Gemini; and xAI, maker of Grok. "The United States will from now on use the more accurate term 'superintelligence,' or SI, instead of AI, and we hope the world does the same," Trump said. "The United States completely rejects any attempt to devise an international scheme to control AI." He added: "I will not suppress the growth of something bigger than the Industrial Revolution. We are ahead of China and everyone else in SI, and we will keep that edge."
No Mention of Israel or North Korea... U.S. and Iranian Working-Level Teams Confer for Three Hours
Trump's speech ran 38 minutes, about 19 minutes shorter than the 57 minutes he logged on Sept. 23 last year, with a substantial portion devoted to Iran.
A striking feature of this year's address was that Israel, the closest U.S. partner in the war with Iran, went almost unmentioned. Trump referred to Israel only once, in noting "the third anniversary of Israel's Oct. 7 terror attack." When he mentioned the hostages seized in the surprise assault by Hamas, the pro-Iran Palestinian militant group, on Oct. 7, 2023, he did not specify their Israeli nationality. Nor did Trump name Israel, a core partner, when thanking more than 10 countries that contributed to the peace council overseeing postwar reconstruction in Gaza. Trump has also decided against a separate summit with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the margins of this General Assembly. On Sept. 24, before Netanyahu arrives in New York, Trump departs for Washington to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.
As in last year's General Assembly address, Trump again made no mention whatsoever of North Korea. Despite signaling repeatedly in recent weeks that he wants to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, he held his tongue on the subject at the UN. Two North Korean diplomats listened to the speech. Kim Song, Pyongyang's ambassador to the UN, did not attend. In contrast, the North Korean diplomats left their seats during President Lee Jae-myung's address that afternoon. They also moved from the seats originally assigned by the UN to seats farther from the South Korean delegation. North Korea's delegation is set to deliver remarks by Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son-gyong on Sept. 28.
Trump instead again sharply criticized the UN, as he did last year. The UN, he said, must not "impose the far-left agenda of unelected globalist bureaucrats on sovereign nations." Of the International Criminal Court, which he has vowed to dismantle on the grounds that it infringes U.S. sovereignty, he said it was "a rogue institution that is out of control" and urged member states to withdraw.
Spotting a CNN reporter in the General Assembly hall, Trump said: "I'm surprised CNN is here covering me. You shouldn't be here." On Sept. 18, Trump barred three outlets — CNN, MS Now and Politico — from the White House, accusing them of reporting "fake news" about him.
There were also signs of substantive movement on U.S.-Iran negotiations. Meeting bilaterally with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump told reporters that "the three-hour meeting with Iran went very well," adding: "Further talks are scheduled very soon, and a deal is in Iran's interest too." Iran's state broadcaster IRIB reported that the U.S. side was represented by Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who is Jewish, and Trump's eldest son-in-law Jared Kushner, with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi leading the Iranian side.
Trump later said at a U.S.-led Latin American security event dubbed "Shield of the Americas" and at a multilateral meeting with Middle Eastern leaders that "Witkoff and Kushner met the mediators in the Iran talks and had a very productive meeting." He added: "It wasn't at the highest level, but a lot of good ideas came out and things are going very well."
"Iran Offers Hormuz Reopening Within Seven Days in Exchange for Easing Military Pressure"... Summit Unlikely Amid Military Opposition
Britain's Reuters and Japan's Kyodo News reported that Iran, through a mediating country in New York, proposed reopening the Strait of Hormuz within seven days in exchange for an easing of U.S. military pressure. It was set as a condition for resuming talks aimed at permanently ending hostilities between the two countries. An Iranian official nonetheless dismissed the possibility of a meeting between Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Trump during the General Assembly.
Trump also met British Prime Minister Andy Burnham for the first time since taking office and discussed Middle East issues. After the bilateral meeting, Burnham told reporters: "We are ready to play our part in stopping the conflict in the Middle East and opening the strait. We received a call from Saudi Arabia requesting support." Trump again expressed confidence at the meeting, saying, "Iran wants to talk to us, and they will reach a deal."
At the bilateral with Zelensky, Trump also endorsed a proposal by some Republican senators to ban diesel exports, saying, "I asked for that too." The U.S. national average diesel price has surged since the Iran war, topping a record $6.50 a gallon as of Sept. 19. That is more than 70% above the $3.71 of a year earlier, and is seen as a major liability for Republicans in the midterm elections. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who sat in on the meeting, said the administration is "looking at whether it's feasible in terms of overall refining capacity, and whether a full ban or a partial ban would be effective."
Publicly, Iran maintained a hard line. Pezeshkian, due in New York on Sept. 23, told state television before departing for the General Assembly that he would "articulate Iran's position on the international stage." "I will focus on the injustices the Iranian people have suffered, the crimes committed against them and the distrust that has taken root in the international community," he said. "Our enemies are trying to block every avenue in order to force the Iranian people's surrender."
According to IRIB, the general staff of Iran's armed forces and the central command of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued a joint statement the same day sharply criticizing Trump's remarks. "The hostile rhetoric and repeated threats the U.S. president has directed at Iran are, rather than grounded in fact, purely a tool of domestic propaganda," the statement said. "The United States has abused the UN stage to justify global aggression, instability and plunder."
Separately, Trump met Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen at the General Assembly and signed a trilateral security agreement under which U.S. forces will build two large military bases in Greenland and sharply increase troop numbers. According to Reuters, the first U.S. base in Greenland amounts to reactivating a former military site at Narsarsuaq in the south. Narsarsuaq hosted a U.S. base known as Bluie West One until the 1950s, in the early Cold War. The U.S. also plans to establish a military foothold at Mestersvig in eastern Greenland, currently a forward military outpost used by Denmark's Sirius Dog Sled Patrol special forces unit. The only U.S. military facility remaining in Greenland is Pituffik Space Base, with about 150 personnel. The U.S. and Denmark signed a defense agreement in 1951 allowing Washington to deploy as many troops to Greenland as it wished.
Whether this General Assembly proves a decisive turning point in resolving the Iran war remains to be seen. For now, the fact that both negotiating teams are unchanged and that the balance of power around the Strait of Hormuz has not shifted is a source of unease. Meanwhile, Yemen's pro-Iran Houthi rebels have taken control of areas near the Red Sea, further deepening uncertainty over crude supplies. Working in favor of negotiations are the damage the Middle East war is inflicting on Trump's midterm election prospects and the near-collapse of Iran's economy.
Oil prices fell, tilting slightly toward the prospect of a diplomatic resolution. Brent crude futures for November settled 1.1% lower at $99.25 a barrel on London's ICE Futures exchange, while October West Texas Intermediate futures fell 1.2% to $94.59 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was the first time Brent had dropped below $100 since Sept. 8, when it closed at $97.92. Iran's state news agency IRNA reported that explosions were heard again on Sept. 23 on Qeshm Island, a key position in the northern waters of the Strait of Hormuz.
