The first shuttle talks between the United States and Iran for months raised hopes on Wednesday (September 23, 2026) that the adversaries could make some progress towards ending the West Asia war, although neither side spelled out any change in their positions.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner communicated through mediators on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, the first such contacts since an interim ceasefire agreement collapsed in July.
Some Iranian state media had earlier reported that Mr. An interim agreement reached in June and signed by Mr. Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian was due to address the gathering on Wednesday (September 23, 2026).
Let’s see what happens with that,” U.S. “They’ve been mediated for a while, but I think there’s a lot of momentum for them to make a deal. It’s what we’re hearing from everybody. Araghchi and Mr. Witkoff had met, but Iranian officials clarified to Reuters that this was not face-to-face. Mr. Araghchi met the Prime Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who has been one of the main mediators at previous talks. Trump and Mr. Pezeshkian would have given Iran its main demands — lifting financial sanctions and unfreezing assets in return for talks on limiting its nuclear programme.
President Donald Trump said. Trump had told the UN General Assembly in a speech that he had to decide whether to make a deal with Iran or “annihilate” the country . Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said Tehran had engaged with the United States through a Qatari mediator in New York and conveyed conditions, including an end to the war on all fronts and a halt to U.S. “acts of aggression”.
Earlier, Mr. “Steve and Jared had a very productive meeting today with mediators of Iran, merely mediators.
