President Donald Trump (Getty)
President Donald Trump met Tuesday with senior representatives from 12 Middle Eastern countries in an expanded gathering on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, discussing the war with Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, and broader regional security.
The meeting was formally billed by the White House as a multilateral meeting with the Gulf Cooperation Council, but representatives from six additional Middle Eastern countries also attended, according to a White House pool report and the Times of Israel.
Along with the six GCC states — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman — the meeting included senior officials from Iraq, Jordan, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt, the Times of Israel reported.
Trump told the leaders there was “a lot of momentum” toward a potential agreement with Iran, following roughly three hours of talks between U.S. and Iranian representatives in New York earlier Tuesday, according to the Times of Israel.
“We think the situation in Iran can end after the midterm elections,” Trump said during the meeting, according to the White House pool report.
Trump also said preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon had been a central objective of the U.S. military campaign against Tehran and warned that the United States could strike another Iranian nuclear site if necessary.
“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, according to the pool report, adding that the United States could strike the Pickaxe Mountain facility if activity there increased.
The meeting came as Gulf governments have sought to limit the spread of the conflict while pressing for security for regional shipping and energy infrastructure, particularly amid disruptions involving the Strait of Hormuz.
Before the meeting, CNN reported that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had pressed Trump to launch U.S. strikes against Iran-backed Houthi forces advancing in Yemen, but Trump ultimately held off on military action. The New York Times and other outlets have similarly reported that Trump decided Sunday not to join Saudi Arabia in strikes against the Houthis, at least for now.
The Strait of Hormuz was another major issue surrounding the gathering.
Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said in his U.N. address that the regional crisis could still be resolved through diplomatic means and called for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and a return to negotiations. He also argued that the absence of a regional collective-security system had contributed to repeated conflicts.
Qatar has played a central role in efforts to mediate between Washington and Tehran, including the latest U.S.-Iranian contacts in New York.
Iranian officials separately said Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff in New York, with Qatar helping facilitate the discussions, according to Iranian officials cited by the Times of Israel. Tehran has indicated that reopening the Strait of Hormuz would be tied to conditions including an end to the U.S. naval blockade and other changes in the conflict.
The broader Arab and Muslim diplomatic effort also included Gaza.
Foreign ministers from Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan met Monday in New York and called for implementation of the first phase of the Comprehensive Plan for Gaza, including increased humanitarian assistance and early-recovery supplies, while rejecting efforts to forcibly displace Palestinians.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II likewise used his U.N. address to criticize Israeli policy in the West Bank and Gaza, describing what he called “forced displacement” in the West Bank as a war crime.
Those remarks were separate from the Trump meeting but underscored the broader regional concerns being brought to New York by Arab leaders.
Trump’s meeting with the regional leaders therefore brought together several overlapping issues — the future of the Iran war, the possibility of renewed U.S.-Iran negotiations, freedom of navigation through Hormuz, the Houthi offensive in Yemen and the continuing Gaza conflict.
Trump’s meeting followed his U.N. address earlier Tuesday, in which he warned that he faced a choice between reaching a deal with Iran and “annihilating the Islamic Republic” if Tehran refused to reach an agreement.
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