Iran and US Signal Openness to Talks as Leaders Head to UN Assembly

Iran and the United States have both signalled a possible return to negotiations aimed at ending their conflict, with the presidents of the two countries set to attend the UN General Assembly in New York.

The gathering would be the first attended by Donald Trump and Masoud Pezeshkian since Trump launched "Operation Epic Fury" against Iran in February, alongside Israel. Trump said on Sunday that he would be open to a meeting with the Iranian president.

A senior Iranian official said no direct meeting between the two leaders was planned, but that Iran's delegation had full authority to revive talks. The official said Iran could reopen the Strait of Hormuz to Gulf shipping within seven days if Washington met Tehran's demands to ease military pressure and lift an American blockade on Iranian ports. Iran conveyed its latest proposal to Washington through mediators last week, the official added.

"The US needs to announce that it wants to resolve the issue diplomatically, make that official, and then agree on a timeline for how the process will move forward," the official said, describing the General Assembly as a golden opportunity for Washington to return to diplomacy.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US was open to speaking with Iran, particularly if the talks held the prospect of leading to something positive and achieving the goal of the effort. Asked about a possible presidential meeting, Rubio said Trump approaches matters with practicality and common sense, adding that there was no harm in engaging.

No face-to-face meetings between the two sides are known to have taken place since July, when an interim agreement to end the war collapsed weeks after it was signed by Trump and Pezeshkian.

Rubio also stressed that Pezeshkian is subordinate under Iran's ruling system to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, whom he described as a radical Shia cleric. He said the central issue is that Iran is run by clerics who can never be allowed to have nuclear weapons.

Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf, who led the country's negotiating team in earlier talks, said Tehran would never surrender and that Trump cannot impose his power on the Iranian people and its armed forces.

Trump is due to meet on Tuesday with the leaders of six Gulf Arab states: Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. All are keen to restore shipping through the Strait of Hormuz but wary of giving their longstanding rival Iran too much power. All except Oman also host large US military bases that have come under repeated Iranian attack during the war.

Saudi Arabia, the largest of the six, has been drawn deeper into the conflict this month as Houthi fighters aligned with Iran advanced in Yemen, routing forces of a Saudi-backed government and threatening Saudi oil exports through the Red Sea. There was some relief on oil markets after sources said Saudi Arabia had restarted operations at its East-West Pipeline and could resume exports within hours, at reduced volume, from the Red Sea port of Yanbu. The pipeline, the kingdom's main alternative export route bypassing the Strait of Hormuz, was shut after attacks this month that Riyadh blamed on Iranian allies in Iraq.

The Houthis have pushed back Saudi-supported government forces along the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at its mouth, and have attacked Saudi Arabia directly with missiles and drones. They are now pressing to seize the strategic heights of the Kahboub Mountains overlooking the Red Sea coast. The US, which bombed the Houthis for two months last year, has so far rebuffed repeated pleas from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to rejoin the fight. Trump called off US strikes against the Houthis on Sunday at the last minute, after troops had begun loading bombs onto planes.

Asked why Washington had held back, Rubio said the US would always stand with Saudi Arabia under an agreement between them, but described the conflict as very dangerous and complex, adding that Washington did not want to see its own history with the Houthis affected.

On the table at the Gulf states' meeting with Trump is a Qatari proposal for a framework bringing Iran and the Arab Gulf states into a common security architecture, regional sources said. One source said Iran was reviewing the proposal. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said any such arrangement would need to provide security guarantees for the Gulf states and expand economic interdependence with Iran, adding that lasting security cannot be built through repeated cycles of escalation and retaliation.