Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi
US War on Iran, Day 208: Trump Flip-Flops on Support for Saudi Arabia v. Yemen’s Houthis
UPDATE 0651 GMT:
An overnight Israeli air attack on al-Khiam in southern Lebanon has damaged power supply lines, cutting off electricity in the Nabaa el-Hamas area.
THe explosion in al-Khiam, in the Nabatieh Governorate, sent shockwaves throughout the south.
ORIGINAL ENTRY: Trump Administration and Iranian officials held a 3-hour indirect meeting in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, on Tuesday.
Donald Trump’s envoy, real estate developer Steve Witkoff, met Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Diplomats from Qatar mediated, shuttling between the two sides/
The meeting was initially revealed by Trump in a press appearance. He said the encounter “went very well” while repeating his threat, made in his morning speech to the General Assembly, that Iran must choose between “potential greatness or obliteration”.
Trump said a further meeting will be arranged in the very near future.
Witkoff proclaimed, “I feel very good right now.” He later posted, “[The mediators] successfully completed a round of discussions that we hope will prove constructive and promising. [They] will continue their work.”
A senior Iranian official earlier said Tehran is prepared to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within a week, provided the US returns to negotiations, moves toward an end of its military blockade of Iranian ports, and halts other military operations. He said the position has been approved by Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and the Supreme National Security Council.
However, Araghchi reiterated Iran’s previous conditions: “The immediate lifting of the (US) naval blockade, the prompt payment of all Iranian assets that have been frozen, and an end to the war on all resistance fronts”.
The meeting was the first US-Iran contact since Vice President JD Vance and an Iranian delegation agreed a Memorandum of Understanding in Switzerland in June.
The Trump Administration soon pulled back from the Memorandum, based on 14 Iranian points. Attacks resumed in the Strait of Hormuz and inside Iran, and the Administration proclaimed economic warfare to break the Iranian regime.
