Iran Conveys Terms for Reopening the Strait of Hormuz to the United States, Pushes Back Against Trump's Remarks

[Financial News] Iran, which has refrained from direct clashes with the United States this month, resumed contact with the United States negotiating team on the occasion of the United Nations General Assembly held in the United States. Iran presented Washington with conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which has been officially blockaded since July.
Iran's state-run IRIB broadcaster reported on the 22nd (local time) that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who attended the high-level session of the United Nations General Assembly, met with Steve Witkoff, the United States special envoy for the Middle East. An official said, "Iran's firm position was conveyed to the United States representative without alteration through the back-channel meeting."
IRIB explained that the purpose of the contact with the United States was to convey Iran's conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Iran is demanding the immediate lifting of the maritime blockade, the immediate return of all frozen Iranian assets, and an end to the war on every front involving pro-Iranian forces in the Middle East.
On the 22nd, United States President Donald Trump also referred to the meeting. He said that United States officials and the Iranian delegation had talked for three hours during the United Nations General Assembly and that the meeting had "gone very well." Trump claimed, "They had a very good meeting, and we will see what the outcome will be." The New York Times reported that Qatar and Pakistan had mediated the talks, and that Jared Kushner, Trump's eldest son-in-law, had attended alongside Witkoff on behalf of the United States.
However, Trump delivered a series of hard-line remarks about Iran in a separate address to the United Nations General Assembly on the 22nd. He said, "I have to make a momentous decision. Do I make a deal with Iran so that they can rebuild and become a country far greater than ever before? Or do I quickly annihilate Iran and deny it the opportunity to kill people and destroy countries ever again?" Iran's delegation to the UN walked out during Trump's speech.
On the same day, the General Staff of Iran's Armed Forces and the central command of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) issued a joint statement condemning Trump. In the statement, they said, "The hostile remarks and repeated threats directed at Iran by the president of the United States are nothing more than tools for domestic propaganda, rather than being based on facts," and criticized the United States, saying, "The United States has exploited the United Nations stage to justify aggression, instability and plunder around the world." They continued, "Drawing on the experience of the Sacred Defense (the Iran-Iraq War) and the second and third forced wars, Iran's powerful military is fully prepared to deliver harsher, more destructive and unpredictable strikes against aggressors, the United States and the leadership of the Zionist regime (Israel)."
Iranian military leadership also referred to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian's United Nations General Assembly address scheduled for the 23rd, stressing, "At the United Nations General Assembly podium, Iran's president will deliver to the world the message of Iran's brave people and heroic military, as well as Iran's unbreakable strength."
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