US President Donald Trump told the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday that he is deciding whether to "annihilate" Iran or make a deal to end the war between the two countries. "I have a big decision to make - will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before, maybe one of the greatest in the Middle East or even the world?" Trump said. "Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again? Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations?"
The remarks came as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington is open to meeting Iranian officials at the United Nations, while Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is scheduled to attend the UN General Assembly in New York. Rubio said on Tuesday that no meeting has been scheduled, but added, "We're open to that. I don't think anything is scheduled at this point." He said such a meeting would be useful if it could lead to a positive outcome and that preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon remained the primary US goal. "And that is the fact that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon. They just simply can't," he said.
Diplomatic Contacts Amid War
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has arrived in New York for the UN General Assembly, while Pezeshkian is expected to arrive ahead of his address to the assembly. The potential meeting comes as Washington and Tehran remain at war, with diplomatic contacts continuing amid the fighting.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesperson Hossein Mohebi told AFP on Tuesday that Tehran had hardened its conditions for ending the war with the US after the collapse of the June MoU aimed at ending hostilities. "They broke the agreement and committed another vicious act. We have therefore toughened our conditions," Mohebi said. He added that if the US persists with this course, "they will only make things difficult for themselves," and that they have "no choice" but to accept Iran's conditions. Mohebi also said Tehran would "undoubtedly intensify" its response if the US launched new attacks on the country. "If they act recklessly and history repeats itself, our resistance will undoubtedly intensify, bolstered by the experience we have gained," he said, adding that "this time, we will not merely retaliate; we will adopt an offensive posture, and America will come to regret its actions, suffering greater humiliation than ever before."
Mohebi also said the US had tried to establish contact with the IRGC, but the IRGC had rebuffed the effort. "The Americans have tried to contact us but we refuse any such contact. Our dealings with the enemy - as long as they remain hostile - are conducted solely through arms," he told AFP, adding that diplomacy was handled by Iran's foreign ministry.
Escalation in Yemen
Washington will stand by its security commitments to Saudi Arabia as fighting intensifies between the kingdom and Yemen's Houthis, Rubio said. "We have a defence agreement with Saudi Arabia. We intend to live up to our commitments on it. We will," Rubio told Fox News. "That is a very dangerous and complicated conflict," he said. The comments came as Saudi Arabia faced a growing campaign by the Houthis, who have launched missile and drone attacks against targets in the kingdom. On Saturday, Saudi Arabia said it intercepted a ballistic missile headed towards Riyadh, while residents reported explosions and saw flames and smoke near the capital's airport. The Houthis said they hit targets in Yanbu, Taif, Baysh and Farasan as the group seized key territory along the Red Sea coast and moved toward the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. In response, Saudi Arabia has launched airstrikes as Riyadh seeks more support from its allies.
Heavy fighting took place in the Taiz, Marib and al-Jawf regions between Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces and Houthi fighters, with exchanges of artillery and missile fire, Al Jazeera reported. Warplanes carried out intensive air strikes on Houthi positions and weapons in western Taiz governorate, the report said, adding that government forces repelled a Houthi attack in Bani Bakari on the al-Ashrouh front in Jabal Habashi district west of Taiz. As fighting in southern and western Yemen grew more intense, authorities raised the alert level and deployed more security personnel. The west coast was particularly affected, with displacement rising as the government and international humanitarian organisations struggle to reach areas affected by the fighting. The escalation has also seen more use of drones, with Yemeni government forces said to have shot down several, including some carrying mortar rounds.
Pressure on Iran's Airlines and Economy
Foreign flights operated by Iranian airlines will continue as scheduled from the beginning of October, Iran's Civil Aviation Organisation said, according to ISNA. A spokesperson said none of the airlines' foreign flights had been cancelled so far and that all were operating according to their published schedules. The statement came after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday that Iranian airlines could be shut out of international travel from Wednesday as Washington threatens secondary sanctions against foreign companies that continue servicing Iranian carriers.
China has condemned the "illegal" US sanctions against Iranian airlines, a day after Bessent warned Washington could impose measures aimed at shutting down Iran's airlines worldwide. Under the weight of US sanctions, "all the Iranian airlines will be shut down around the world" within days, Bessent told CNBC on Monday, as the Trump administration seeks to increase economic pressure on Tehran. "China consistently opposes illegal unilateral sanctions that lack a basis in international law or authorisation from the UN Security Council," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a news conference. The dispute comes shortly before Trump is due to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday in the United States.
Trump also urged members of the International Criminal Court to resign and called it an "out of control institution" and "an evil group of people." "I call on all nations that are members of the ICC to officially resign from this rogue institution immediately," he told the UN General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York. Trump added that Washington would "never allow US service members or anyone else to be investigated or given show-trials by an anti-American tribunal with no jurisdiction over us." The Trump administration has imposed a series of sanctions on ICC officials after the court issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Iran has reached a stage where its missiles can hit anywhere it chooses, parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said, Press TV reported. Ghalibaf said Iran would continue to respond with strength amid what he called a "hybrid conflict" of economic, military and diplomatic pressure. Iran will not surrender and will not allow the country's activities to halt, Ghalibaf said, adding that Tehran will continue to respond the way it has in the past. Iran had deprived its adversaries of their capabilities in various areas, he said.
Why This Matters:
Trump's threat to "annihilate" Iran at the UN General Assembly marks a dangerous escalation in rhetoric at a moment when diplomatic channels remain open but fragile. The collapse of the June MoU and Tehran's hardening conditions for peace negotiations show how quickly diplomatic progress can unravel when military pressure intensifies. Meanwhile, the expanding conflict in Yemen continues to displace civilians and strain humanitarian access, with the west coast particularly affected as fighting intensifies. The US commitment to support Saudi Arabia militarily risks deepening American involvement in a war that's already devastated Yemen's population. Trump's attack on the International Criminal Court and his sanctions on ICC officials over the Netanyahu arrest warrant further erode international legal institutions at a time when accountability mechanisms are most needed. The administration's economic warfare against Iranian airlines threatens to isolate ordinary Iranians from the world, compounding the humanitarian cost of sanctions that have already devastated the country's economy. China's condemnation of these measures as lacking basis in international law highlights the growing divide between Washington and much of the international community on how to address regional conflicts through legal frameworks rather than unilateral coercion.