Iran-US war latest: Trump says meeting with Iranian delegation went well after his threat to annihilate country

U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff met with Iranian officials on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, President Donald Trump confirmed.

“It ended an hour ago. It was a meeting that lasted for three hours,” the president told reporters on Tuesday afternoon.

“Very good meeting,” Trump added. “I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t want to. It’s greatness, potential greatness, or obliteration.”

Nobody had high hopes for Trump’s speech at the UN General Assembly, and as the president ambled out to the lectern and tiredly began ranting about how “I can report to you with pride that America is back and our country is better than ever before,” most diplomats and journalists alike settled in for a proto-rally.

The vintage Trumpian claims came thick and fast. “Our economy is the envy of the world,” he told the gathered world leaders, who looked decidedly unenvious. “We are leading in virtually everything,” he added, as though the prime ministers and presidents of Canada and France and the U.K. and South Korea were actually going to applaud it, much less believe it.

Read Holly Baxter’s analysis…

“Two-thirds of Americans don’t think the U.S. is winning the war with Iran,” CNN’s Kaitlin Collins asked the president while in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. “When will it end?”

“I’m surprised that CNN is here covering me,” Trump replied. “You shouldn’t be here.”

Last week, Trump abruptly banned journalists from CNN, Politico and MS NOW from the White House. The outlets subsequently sued.

During a sideline meting with U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham on Tuesday, President Donald Trump suggested that a “settlement” could soon be reached with Iran.

“I think that a settlement is going to be reached,” Trump said. “They want to talk to us. They have been talking to us, even today. They’ve been talking to us, and the relationship is developing.”

Addressing the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York Tuesday, the commander-in-chief called the court a “rogue institution” and claimed it was “out of control”.

Trump’s administration has been vocal about its disdain for the court, which prosecutes war crimes and genocide worldwide, announcing sanctions against the body in February last year.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday left United Nations General Assembly delegates stupefied and stunned after a 40-minute speech that meandered from false boasts about his domestic economic record to threats against Iran to an incoherent rant about why Artificial Intelligence should be referred to as “superintelligence” instead.

Trump, who spoke in the customary time slot allocated to American presidents on the first day of speeches by heads of state and government at the annual gathering, appeared to have brought his usual political stump speech to the iconic green marble rostrum by opening his remarks with nearly ten straight minutes of bragging about American economic and domestic conditions of no interest to the global body.

Andrew Feinberg has the analysis…

Upon taking the podium, King Abdullah II of Jordan said the ongoing Iran war has had far-reaching consequences around the world.

“If anyone had any doubt that conflict from our region stays there, just look at the energy and grocery bills of ordinary families, from Mumbai to Minnesota,” he said.

During his speech at the U.N., President Trump insisted that he has ushered in an era of peace while handling years of “unfinished business.”

“While others have talked, I have acted,” he told foreign leaders and dignitaries gathered in New York. “While others have spoken of peace, I have made peace. While others have ignored threats, I have confronted them. While others have talked of courage, America has shown it. While others have promised strength, I have used it to make America the most powerful country in the world.”

While in New York on Tuesday, President Donald Trump is expected to meet with the leaders of six Gulf nations, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait.

The gathering could prove pivotal in determining the next phase of the Iran war, which has engulfed large swaths of the Middle East.