Trump weighs wipe-out, deal, or a meeting with Iran's president
As the UN General Assembly opens, Tehran threatens "new weapons" if the US strikes again.
President Donald Trump said over the weekend that his options on Iran are "wiping Iran out, letting them rot economically, or making a deal," and asked aloud "if and when do I blow the entire nation up," warning Tehran that "they better behave."
He also told Fox News he would "probably" be open to meeting Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian during this week's United Nations General Assembly in New York. Both leaders are due to address the assembly. Iran is sending a slimmed-down delegation that includes Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps answered the rhetoric on Monday. Spokesman Hossein Mohebbi said that if the United States launched a fresh assault, Tehran would use "new weapons with new capabilities" and "change the weapons and geography of the war," according to the semiofficial Fars news agency. He gave no details on what those weapons are or which new places might be hit.
The confrontation is now nearly seven months old. Hostilities flared again last month over the Strait of Hormuz. A June memorandum of understanding has stalled. Iran-backed Houthis have attacked Saudi targets and tightened pressure on the Bab el-Mandeb. Oil markets slipped Monday on talk of renewed diplomacy, even as shipping through Hormuz stayed thinner than a week earlier.
Yesterday's beat was Iran warning US ships in the Indian Ocean. Today's beat is the other side of the same week: Trump putting wipe-out, economic squeeze, and a deal on the same list while both sides sit in New York.
For India, the stakes are energy prices, shipping risk, and another week of Gulf volatility. UN week is also where Gulf mediators (Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and others) get a chance to keep the fight from expanding into October or November, which analysts have flagged as a danger window.
Watch whether Trump and Pezeshkian actually meet, or whether Gulf states broker side talks instead. Trump is also due to meet Gulf Cooperation Council leaders on the war's next steps. A Security Council resolution is possible in theory, but a US veto remains on the table, and deep mistrust still sits between the two capitals.