Iran has opened a new “channel of communication” with mediators to “break the deadlock” in the war during meetings with US officials in New York, a source close to the Iranian delegation told The National on Tuesday.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei later confirmed details of that diplomatic channel to state news agency Irna, saying Tehran engaged with the US through a Qatari mediator at the General Assembly.
President Donald Trump announced that US and Iranian officials held a three-hour meeting that went “very well”, adding that he could not imagine why Iran would not want to make a deal. “It’s potential greatness or obliteration.”
Mr Trump said his son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff had attended the talks earlier in the day. “I think there’s a lot of momentum for them to make a deal,” he said. “That’s what we are hearing from everybody.”
The National had reported hours before the meeting that Iran was open to talks with US officials, after Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said Mr Trump was open to meeting the Iranian delegation on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
“New York is a platform for Iran to present its position on the war. There is now a new channel of communication with the Americans through the Pakistanis and Qataris, who are intensifying their contacts in New York in an effort to break the deadlock and meet,” said the source.
“Our trust is in the mediators and in the guarantees that the Americans must provide,” added the source. “The choice at the New York meeting is between two paths: either escalation, futility and chaos, or allowing reason to prevail and returning to the path of settlement and negotiations.”
Iran had indicated a renewed willingness to revive diplomacy with the US as President Masoud Pezeshkian headed to New York to attend the UN General Assembly. In two separate reports after Mr Pezeshkian took off, senior Iranian officials said Tehran had offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if Washington eases military pressure and lifts its blockade.
What to expect from day 1 of UNGA
Mr Pezeshkian is due to address the General Assembly on Wednesday and hold meetings with foreign leaders, Iranian expatriates, US experts and think tank members, state media reported.
Mr Witkoff wrote on X that he “engaged in lengthy talks with the Iranian delegation through the mediators, who shuttled between the two sides throughout the day”. He added that “they successfully completed a round of discussions that we hope will prove constructive and promising. The mediators will continue their work”.
Addressing the UN General Assembly before the meeting, Mr Trump called on countries to impose “complete economic isolation” on Iran until Tehran stops attacks on commercial shipping, abandons its nuclear ambitions and ends its support for terrorism.
“The terrorist regime is behaving badly, not because they are strong and confident, but because they are weak and desperate,” Mr Trump said.
“If we stand united, we will soon see a world free of the last 51-year menace of Iranian terror, and oil prices will come plummeting down even lower than they were at the start of the conflict, and they were very low. In the United States, they were really low.”
Mr Baghaei rejected that framing, saying Iran viewed Mr Trump’s remarks as reflecting “desperation” rather than strength. “Threatening a country with military attack is an admission of the nature of the current US ruling establishment and the commission of international crimes,” he said.
On Tuesday, Mr Trump met Gulf and Arab officials to discuss the Iran war and ways to ease the conflict after months of Iranian missile and drone attacks on Arab states.
Gulf officials have said in recent days that dialogue with Iran must remain on the table, acknowledging that rebuilding trust will not happen overnight but that the process has to start somewhere.
According to sources with knowledge of the meeting, Mr Trump has conveyed messages that he will try to “persuade” representatives of Arab nations to sit down with Iranian officials.
“He is hoping that representatives of the two sides will meet in Oman later this month to start a reconciliation process that ends hostilities and recalibrates relations,” said one source.