US and Iranian officials hold 'very good' meeting at UN General Assembly

President Donald Trump announced that US and Iranian officials held a "very good" meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, an unexpected engagement occurring even as he threatened in his address to potentially "annihilate" the Islamic Republic if no deal is reached soon to end the nearly seven-month war. Trump told reporters that his chief envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, met with Iranian officials, though he offered few details about the substance of the exchange, adding that the Iranian representatives were "not the highest level, but it's something." The meeting follows months of languishing US-Iran communications after a short-lived June ceasefire collapsed, with earlier indirect talks held in Doha in early July via Qatari and Pakistani mediators. In his UN address, Trump defended his decision to start the war, called on Iran to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and said he faces a "big decision" between allowing Iran to rebuild or annihilating it quickly. Most of Iran's delegation walked out during his speech, while Trump also met with Gulf Cooperation Council leaders and signed a security agreement with Denmark and Greenland for expanded US military presence there.