NEW YORK — U.S. and Iranian delegations held three hours of talks at United Nations headquarters in New York on the 22nd.
U.S. President Donald Trump said the talks with Iran "went very well" and lasted three hours, speaking during a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
Iran's state broadcaster IRIB reported that U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump's eldest son-in-law, took part in the negotiations, while Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi represented Iran. The broadcaster said Araghchi had abruptly accepted Witkoff's request for a meeting, with the aim of conveying Iran's conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. According to the report, Iran set out as preconditions the immediate lifting of the naval blockade, the immediate return of all frozen Iranian assets and an end to the war on all fronts.
Trump called it "a very good meeting." He said Iran faces two options. "One is complete destruction, and the other option is the potential to be great. Iran can be a great nation," he said. Trump added that the two sides had held very productive talks and that further meetings were scheduled in the very near future. "We'll see what happens. But clearly, it's better for Iran to make a deal," he said.
Asked about the talks, Witkoff said he felt very good at the moment, according to Bloomberg. It was the first direct meeting between the United States and Iran in about three months, since late June. Saudi broadcaster Al Arabiya, however, citing a U.S. official who attended the talks, reported that the prospects for an agreement between the two countries remain limited and that major differences and obstacles persist. It also said the United States had rejected Iran's request to lift the blockade.
