Washington, Tehran complete round of talks at UNGA, Witkoff says

U.S. President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy for Peace Missions Steve Witkoff said on Tuesday that the United States and Iran completed a round of “lengthy” indirect talks at the United Nations General Assembly.

Witkoff said mediators “shuttled between the two sides throughout the day” as part of “discussions that we hope will prove constructive and promising.”

“The mediators will continue their work,” the envoy added.

Meanwhile, the spokesman of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps—a U.S.-designated terrorist organization—told AFP on Tuesday that Tehran had hardened its conditions for ending the conflict with the United States.

“They broke the agreement and committed another vicious act. We have therefore toughened our conditions,” said Hossein Mohebi, referencing the collapse in July of the Memorandum of Understanding to end hostilities in the Middle East.

“We are not their playthings, and they cannot unilaterally violate an agreement they signed whenever they please,” the spokesman added.

One of the new demands, Mohebi continued, is the release of $24 billion in frozen assets up front before negotiations, per AFP.

In addition, he said, the issue of Yemen must be included in any future agreement, which would entail the lifting of the blockade on the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.

The front face of the IRGC stated that the current situation in the Strait of Hormuz can go on for the next 20 years.

“The United States will not achieve its objectives through an economic blockade—even though it harms us—and we will undoubtedly retaliate,” said Mohebi.

He also claimed that Washington has attempted to contact the IRGC directly, “but we refuse any such contact.” Diplomacy is handled through Iran’s foreign ministry while the IRGC deals with its enemies only through arms, he added.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf claimed on Tuesday that the Islamic Republic’s missiles can now hit anywhere it chooses, the state-run Press TV outlet reported.

Ghalibaf, who has led negotiations with the United States, said Tehran faces a “hybrid conflict” of economic, military and diplomatic pressure. He vowed Tehran would keep responding with strength.

Rubio: Iran is run by ‘lunatic clerics’

In New York City, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News on Tuesday that Iran is run by “lunatic clerics” with “an apocalyptic view of their religion.”

“These people can never have nuclear weapons,” Rubio said in an interview with the “Fox & Friends” program. The secretary noted the “thousands and thousands” of their own people the regime has killed.

He warned that a nuclear Iran would be like “North Korea, but in the Middle East.” That prospect, he said, “would be catastrophic for the world.”

“Eventually someone has to do something about it or it’s going to happen,” Rubio said.

In a separate interview with NBC’s “Today” show, Rubio said the Trump administration was ‌open to speaking ‌with the Iranian delegation ⁠at ⁠the U.N. General Assembly this week, but added that no meeting is currently scheduled.

“We’re certainly open to something like that, especially ⁠if it has the prospects of leading to something ⁠positive and ultimately achieving the goal of ⁠what this is all about,” Rubio said.

Also on Tuesday, Rubio said that Washington has placed “crushing sanctions” on the Iranian regime, in an interview with Sid Rosenberg on the radio host’s eponymous WABC show.

“They are under extraordinary economic pressure,” Rubio said on the Sid and Friends in the Morning program. “Let’s see what happens after that, but I can tell you they’re going to be poorer and they’re going to have less money to spend on terrorism and on a nuclear weapon as a result of these sanctions and the blockade.”

Trump says ‘big decision’ to be made regarding deal or war with Iran

Speaking at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump said that that he faces a choice between destroying the Iranian regime and making a deal with it.

“I have a big decision to make,” Trump told the 81st annual gathering of world leaders and diplomats in the Big Apple. “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?” he asked. “Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations?”

The president repeated his previous predictions that a deal to conclude the American conflict with Iran will happen sometime after the U.S. midterm elections.

After a meeting with British Prime Minister Andy Burnham on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, Trump told reporters that the Iranians “want to talk to us. They have been talking to us, even today they’ve been ⁠talking to us, and the relationship is developing.”

During his UNGA address, Trump further denied that the war against Iran has caused a shortage in U.S. munitions stockpiles despite a U.S. Department of Defense inspector general report last week finding that the conflict “has resulted in strategic inventory shortfalls and revealed industrial base bottlenecks for munitions resupply.”

“We have more munitions than we could ever possibly even think of using,” said the U.S. president.