Speaking on the first day of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Tuesday, United States President Donald Trump threatened to \u201cannihilate\u201d Iran. Hours later, he told reporters that US officials held a \u201cvery good\u201d meeting with Iranian leaders.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s military did not hold back. Dismissing Trump\u2019s remarks, the Armed Forces General Staff \u2013 Iran\u2019s highest military body \u2013 warned that it is ready to respond with \u201ccrushing\u201d severer attacks than earlier in the war.<\/p>\n
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Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, though not in direct response to Trump, used similarly combative imagery in a message marking the start of Iran\u2019s academic year, describing knowledge combined with faith and morality as a \u201csharp sword\u201d capable of cutting off the hands of aggressors.<\/p>\n
Amid the rhetoric, the two sides held their first in-person meeting in months on the sidelines of the UNGA, reviving a diplomatic channel that had almost collapsed in the wake of repeated violations of the June memorandum of understanding (MoU), which subsequently lapsed last month, during\u00a0nearly seven months of the US-Israel war on Iran.<\/p>\n
The war has triggered a spike in fuel prices in the US \u2013 a major issue in the midterm elections due in November \u2013 while sanctions by Washington are squeezing Iran\u2019s economy. While Tehran wants the economic measures as well as the US naval blockade on its ports lifted, Washington wants Iran to allow free navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, a global oil chokepoint, and an end to its nuclear programme.<\/p>\n
So, why are Washington and Tehran engaging in diplomacy aimed at finding a way out of the war while also issuing fiery and violent threats?<\/p>\n
What were the US-Iran talks on at the UNGA?<\/p>\n
Trump said his envoys \u2013 Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner \u2013 met Iranian officials for about three hours on the sidelines of the UNGA. He described it as a \u201cvery good meeting\u201d, while acknowledging the Iranian representatives were \u201cnot the highest level\u201d.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi took part, with mediators shuttling between the US and Iranian teams.<\/p>\n
Witkoff later said the discussions were completed and expressed hope they would prove \u201cconstructive and promising\u201d.<\/p>\n
The talks were believed to be the first in-person discussions between officials from the two countries since US Vice President JD Vance met senior Iranian officials in Switzerland in June.<\/p>\n
Trump said another meeting was expected \u201cin the very near future\u201d, adding that he believed there was \u201ca lot of momentum\u201d towards an agreement.<\/p>\n
What did Trump say?<\/p>\n
Trump used his UN speech to offer Iran a choice: an opening for negotiations and simultaneously issued a threat of further destruction.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a big decision to make,\u201d Trump said. He asked whether a deal would allow Iran to \u201crebuild and create a far greater country\u201d, or \u201cdo I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo I drive them into hell with no chance of survival?\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The Iranian delegation walked out shortly after Trump started to describe the nearly seven months of on-and-off military strikes against Iran, with only one person remaining seated.<\/p>\n
What has Iran said?<\/p>\n
In a statement carried by the Mehr news agency, Iran\u2019s General Staff accused the US president of using the UN platform to justify \u201caggression\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch words demonstrate America\u2019s strategic dead end in its aggression against the Iranian nation,\u201d it said, describing Trump\u2019s repeated threats as \u201cnot a sign of power but a sign of their strategic desperation\u201d.<\/p>\n
The statement also warned Iran\u2019s armed forces are ready to deliver strikes against the US and Israel that would be \u201cmore crushing and less predictable\u201d than earlier in their war.<\/p>\n
Khamenei also used combative language, although his remarks were not a direct response to Trump\u2019s UN address.<\/p>\n
In a message marking the start of the academic year, he described knowledge, faith and morality as weapons against the US and Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cPower rooted in knowledge and coupled with piety and morality serves as an iron shield and a sharp sword that can cut off their aggressors\u2019 hands from humanity,\u201d Khamenei said, referring to what he called the \u201ccriminal US government\u201d and Israel, Press TV reported.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, before departing Tehran on Tuesday, President Masoud Pezeshkian also struck a defiant tone, accusing the US of doing \u201ceverything they can to block every possible route\u201d to force Iran and its people to surrender after failing to achieve that militarily.<\/p>\n
Pezeshkian said Iran would use the UN gathering to highlight \u201cthe crimes that have been committed against\u201d Iranians and the distrust created by the war.<\/p>\n
Why the escalating rhetoric amid diplomacy?<\/p>\n
The hostile rhetoric between Washington and Tehran should not necessarily be seen as contradicting ongoing diplomatic efforts, according to Andreas Krieg, associate professor at King\u2019s College London.<\/p>\n
Instead, Krieg argues, the public threats and tough language are part of a wider battle to shape how any eventual agreement is perceived at home and abroad.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe violent rhetoric is not a contradiction to the diplomacy. It is part of the bargaining strategy,\u201d Krieg told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
For Trump, the objective is to demonstrate that Iran returned to negotiations because of the US pressure rather than any softening of Washington\u2019s position.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Iran\u2019s leadership needs to construct almost the opposite narrative \u2013 that Tehran resisted US pressure, retained sufficient leverage and ultimately forced Washington to negotiate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has become a major war over narratives as much as a war over material power,\u201d Krieg said.<\/p>\n
Both governments are therefore addressing several audiences simultaneously, including their domestic constituencies, each other, regional allies and the wider international community.<\/p>\n
Moreover, Krieg said the rhetoric could, paradoxically, make an eventual compromise easier. \u201cIf both sides can convince their audiences that they negotiated from strength, they gain more political space to compromise privately without appearing to capitulate publicly,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
According to the academic, the real issue was \u201csequencing\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIran wants movement on the blockade, sanctions and frozen assets before giving up leverage over Hormuz or accepting irreversible nuclear concessions. Washington wants tangible Iranian movement first, particularly on navigation and the nuclear file,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cQatar\u2019s role is crucial because Doha can turn those incompatible demands into reciprocal steps rather than forcing one side to move first. The danger is that rhetoric can still create its own momentum if there is a major attack, significant US casualties, an Israeli strike or escalation from Yemen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Speaking on the first day of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Tuesday, United States President Donald…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":902616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2542,43,5575,12241,44,41,39,42,40,1055,6075,262188],"class_list":["post-902615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-explainer","tag-headlines","tag-iran","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada","tag-us-israel-war-on-iran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=902615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/902616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}