NEW YORK: There is “a lot of momentum” for a deal with Iran, US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday at a meeting on the sidelines of the 81st UN General Assembly in New York. 

The meeting was attended by the Saudi foreign minister, Qatar’s emir, Jordan’s king, the Turkish and Syrian presidents, Egyptian officials, and the US secretaries of state and the Treasury.

Trump said his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner had held talks earlier in the day with Iranian intermediaries. 

“The Iranians respect them both very much, and I think that’s important,” he added. “I think there’s a lot of momentum for them to make a deal. That’s what we’re hearing from everybody.”

Iran’s economy is “in really bad shape,” Trump said. “I hope they’re going to do something that’s really good for their people, and I think they are actually. The other alternative isn’t an acceptable alternative for anybody.”

Trump described the leaders at the meeting as “some of America’s greatest and closest friends, allies, and partners” working toward “a safer and more prosperous Middle East.”

He said the same group had gathered on the UNGA sidelines a year earlier to discuss ending the war in Gaza, at a time when the conflict “was raging with no end in sight.”

Weeks later, he said, the same countries helped broker “a historic peace deal,” crediting the group with “saving hundreds of thousands of lives” and the creation of the Board of Peace. “Nobody thought it was possible,” he said. “The people around this table made that possible.”

Trump called Iran’s nuclear program the other long-standing challenge that his administration had sought to address this year.

He credited Operation Epic Fury with crippling Iran’s navy, eliminating its air force, hitting more than 90 percent of its weapons factories, and destroying 450 ballistic missile storage facilities and 800 drone storage facilities.

He said the campaign had also taken out Iran’s air defense systems “almost completely,” and had “decimated its terrorist leadership and destroyed its economy,” with inflation now exceeding 300 percent.

Trump credited Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent with leading Operation Economic Outcast. “We’re completely isolating Iran financially, and we’re just putting the pressure on because hopefully they’ll do the right thing fast before it’s too late,” Trump said.

“There’s going to be a time when it’s too late, and we won’t have a chance of letting them survive as a nation.”

He said the US Navy has cleared Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz and is facilitating the renewed flow of oil, having escorted more than 1 billion barrels out of the Gulf.

Trump added that Iranian attacks on shipping and neighboring countries have underscored the need “to shift Middle East energy infrastructure away from the Iranian checkpoints,” voicing support for the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor and alternative export routes.

“Together, we’re on the verge of overcoming challenges that have plagued this region for decades,” he said.

Iran had been called “the bully of the Middle East” for decades, “and they’re really not the bully anymore,” he added.

“We continue to stand together … We’ll create a future for this region and the world that’s brighter than ever before.”