Trump tells Middle East leaders US-Iran talks have ‘momentum’

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON — Following a meeting with Middle Eastern leaders on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said there was “a lot of momentum” toward a deal with Iran, hours after suggesting the United States could either strike a deal with Tehran or “annihilate” it.

“I think there’s a lot of momentum for them to make a deal,” Trump said. He said that the US is aiming to “completely isolate Iran financially,” adding that “hopefully they’ll do the right thing fast before it's too late, you know it's going to be a time when it's too late and we won’t have a chance of letting them survive as a nation.”

Trump also pointed to Iran’s nuclear program, saying that preventing Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon remained a central objective of the US campaign.

“A big portion of what we’ve done, maybe 99% of it, is to make sure that Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon, those sites have been blown up,” Trump said. “We may have to blow up another one, Pickaxe Mountain. We’re not seeing a lot of activity there, but if we do, we’ll blow it up immediately.”

Trump has repeatedly threatened to strike Pickaxe Mountain, a heavily fortified site near Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility. The Iranian government has previously described Pickaxe Mountain as a centrifuge assembly plant but a lack of international inspector access since its construction in 2020 has raised concerns it could be used for other covert purposes, such as uranium enrichment.

Tuesday's meeting brought together Trump, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi, Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and Kuwait’s Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah.

Asked by Al-Monitor whether there was consensus on a pathway forward, US Ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria and Iraq Tom Barrack said "there's a consensus that we need a way forward, that's the only consensus."

Separately, Jordan's King Abdullah told Al-Monitor that the meeting was "very good."

The meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York came as the war stretches into its seventh month, traffic in the Strait of Hormuz remains disrupted and the Iran-backed Houthis are escalating their attacks against Saudi energy and oil sites.

“I have a big decision to make,” Trump said in his roughly 35-minute address to world leaders earlier on Tuesday. “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? Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again?”

Earlier Tuesday, senior US and Iranian officials held three hours of talks that Trump called “very productive,” with another meeting planned for the “near future.” Trump’s Middle East advisers, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, attended the talks. Iranian state media confirmed that such a meeting took place on Tuesday.

“I feel very good right now,” Witkoff said when asked by a reporter about the meeting.

Gulf Arab states have sought to maintain diplomatic channels with Iran as the conflict continues. On Sunday, UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash told Al-Monitor that discussions between Washington and Tehran should be accompanied by a parallel regional dialogue. "We need a new mindset that these sort of discussions about what sort of region we all want, what sort of stability we all pray for and what sort of essentials of development — which is very much linked to stability, this sort of discussion — while it can happen at an Iranian-American level, it should also take place at an Iranian-Arab level," Gargash said.