US and Iran Hold First Indirect Talks in Months at UN, Raising Hopes for Deal
US and Iranian envoys communicated through mediators in New York, the first such contacts since a July ceasefire collapse, as Brent crude held below $100.
The United States and Iran have held their first indirect talks in months, with envoys communicating through mediators on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. The contacts mark the first engagement between the two sides since an interim ceasefire agreement collapsed in July.
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner did not meet face-to-face, Iranian officials said, clarifying earlier state media reports. Araqchi held talks with Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, one of the main mediators in previous rounds.
US President Donald Trump described the mediated meeting as productive. "I think there's a lot of momentum for them to make a deal," he said, adding that Washington was hearing the same from others.
Earlier, Trump told the General Assembly that he had to decide whether to make a deal with Iran or "annihilate" the country. Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian was scheduled to address the gathering.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said Tehran had engaged through a Qatari mediator and conveyed conditions, including an end to the war on all fronts and a halt to what it called US acts of aggression. Neither side indicated any shift in its stated position.
Oil holds near two-week lows
The diplomatic opening helped keep oil prices near two-week lows, with Brent crude holding just below the $100-a-barrel mark it had crossed this month after Houthi fighters in Yemen launched a major offensive and fired into Saudi Arabia.
The war, launched by Trump in February alongside Israel as "Operation Epic Fury", has lasted nearly seven months, killing thousands, disrupting global energy supplies and spreading to Lebanon and more recently Yemen. Trump repeated his assertion that the conflict could end around November's US midterm elections, without explaining why.
Since diplomacy broke off, the sides have exchanged fire repeatedly, though Trump has held back from a full resumption of strikes after military commanders advised that munitions were running low.
An interim agreement signed in June would have lifted financial sanctions and unfrozen assets in return for talks on limiting Iran's nuclear programme. It unravelled within weeks over shipping rules in the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas before the war. Iran wants greater control of the strait and fees from ships using it, which Washington rejects.
Despite near-daily attacks on tankers, traffic through the strait has gradually increased. Producers have paid shipping companies fees worth as much as a quarter of a cargo's value to switch off transponders and transfer crude beyond the strait. UAE exports have recovered to pre-war levels, and Saudi Arabia has sold 60 million barrels of Gulf oil for this month and next, a big increase from August.
Disruption nonetheless continues to squeeze energy markets. About a third of Gulf oil is estimated to be missing from global supplies, with shortages hitting refined products such as diesel, causing inflation and pushing up interest rates ahead of the elections. The risk of further disruption has grown since the Iran-backed Houthis advanced in Yemen this month, threatening traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
Washington has imposed a blockade on Iranian ports, deepening Iran's economic crisis. Iranian officials say they will endure the blockade to achieve their goals and will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until it is lifted.