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Trump threatens at the UN to annihilate Iran unless it makes a deal
September 23, 2026
Trump told the UN General Assembly he could annihilate Iran or reach a deal, as President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived in New York to speak.
Iran and the United States have been at war for nearly seven months, since US-Israeli strikes began, with Pakistan and Qatar acting as mediators between the two governments.
Key facts
- Yemen's government, supported by Saudi Arabia, has fought Houthi rebels backed by Iran in a civil war since 2014.
- Mehr News, a semi-official Iranian agency, said on Monday that Masoud Pezeshkian would depart Tehran on Tuesday for the UN General Assembly in New York.
- Trump said the deal with Denmark and Greenland would hand the US "permanent control over security and all other needs" there, and he tied it to NATO's defense of the Arctic and North Atlantic.
- An official told Reuters that Iran's supreme leader had empowered Pezeshkian's delegation to restart diplomacy with Washington, though the official excluded any face-to-face session between Trump and the Iranian president at UN headquarters.
- Trump pointed to events across the Americas, among them the arrest of Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro, which he credited to an American military raid.
President Trump used his General Assembly address to put a choice before Iran. UN News reports that he framed it as a deal letting Iran rebuild or a swift campaign against the Islamic Republic, and CBS News, BBC and The Guardian carry the same passage. "I will never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon," Trump said, in remarks UN News, CBS News and The Guardian all carry. He still predicted a settlement, telling UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, "I think that a settlement is going to be reached," according to CBS News. The Financial Times and The New York Times headline the same sequence: a Trump threat, then an Iranian reply from the podium.
The Iranian side comes mostly through CBS News and CNN. CBS News reports that Iranian state media placed Pezeshkian in New York late Tuesday, travelling with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and that Washington denied visas to his communications team. CBS News and BBC report that an Iranian official said the delegation had authority from the supreme leader to revive diplomacy, though a Trump meeting with Pezeshkian at UN headquarters was ruled out. CNN reports Trump saying his officials then spent about three hours with the Iranian delegation, which he called a "very good meeting." Araghchi, CBS News reports, said Iran holds "no trust" in the UN as it stands.
The threat, the arrival and the three-hour session are corroborated across the outlets. CNN reads the speech as short on surprises, and The Guardian gives room to the Cuban delegation walking out, both matters of emphasis rather than disputed fact. What Pezeshkian says from the podium, and what the talks produced, is still developing.
Speaking at the General Assembly, he said: “I will never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon,”
General Debate
Still developing
The idea of Trump meeting Pezeshkian in New York this week had not moved as of the draft.
How settled the reporting is
Sources
- UN News — Trump defends military action against Iran, Venezuela, and calls for rebrand of AI - UN News
- BBC — Trump threatens to 'annihilate' Iran in UN speech as officials from both countries meet on sidelines - BBC
- CBS News — Iranian president arrives in New York as Trump weighs cutting a deal or driving Iran "into hell"
- cnn.com — Live updates: Iran’s president to address UN as Trump mixes threats and diplomacy
- The Guardian — Trump calls on allies to enforce ‘complete economic isolation of Iran’ in UN speech - The Guardian
- Financial Times — UN General Assembly live: Iran’s president to address leaders after Trump threatens ‘annihilation’
Toggle read the full reports of 5 of the 7 outlets counted on this event. The other 2 are counted from their headlines and opening sentences.