Iranian UN delegation has no US talks planned despite Trump’s expectation of renewed negotiations

Iran’s delegation to the UN General Assembly has no negotiations with the United States planned, Iranian state news agency IRNA reported on Monday, according to The Guardian. The statement, attributed to an unnamed source close to the delegation, comes after President Donald Trump said he expected talks to resume soon. The difference matters because the two countries are weighing a proposal that ties a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to a wider ceasefire and US concessions.

The Guardian reported that Trump made his prediction to Axios on Sunday, 27 September. It also reported that he had rejected Tehran’s proposal the previous day. IRNA said Iran’s positions had been conveyed to the US through a Qatari mediator and that the delegation would return to Tehran on Tuesday. The agency did not identify the source behind its account of the delegation’s plans.

What Iran proposed

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi set out the proposal to reporters outside the UN Security Council on Friday, 25 September, Al Jazeera reported. He said it had been conveyed to Washington through Qatar and that Iran was awaiting a response. The seven-day timetable would begin only if the United States accepted the plan, he said. His account described four to five days of initial steps, reopening the strait on day six and beginning talks on a final agreement concerning Iran’s nuclear programme on day seven.

Under the proposal as reported by Al Jazeera, Washington would lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports, waive sanctions on Iranian oil sales, release an estimated $12 billion in frozen Iranian assets and observe a regional ceasefire that includes Lebanon and Yemen. Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz. These are proposed terms, rather than steps the two governments have agreed to carry out.

Talks already held

The latest statements follow contact between the sides at the UN. Al Jazeera reported that Araghchi met Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff on Tuesday, 22 September. Witkoff called their discussion lengthy and said he hoped it would prove constructive and promising. A White House official also told CNN, in an account quoted by Al Jazeera, that the administration was having ‘positive and constructive discussions through the mediators.’

That earlier contact helps explain why Trump might expect further negotiations, but the positions reported this week point in different directions. His stated expectation concerns what could happen next; IRNA’s account concerns the delegation’s current plans. The latter comes from an unnamed source whose role was not disclosed in The Guardian’s report. Neither account, as reported, establishes a date for another meeting.

A previous framework fell apart

The new proposal has a precedent. Al Jazeera reported that it closely resembles a memorandum signed by Tehran and Washington on 17 June after mediation by Qatar and Pakistan. That arrangement provided a 60-day window for negotiations but collapsed within weeks. Disputes over shipping through Hormuz followed: Al Jazeera reported that Iran fired on vessels it accused of ignoring its authorisation rules and that Trump declared the agreement over in July.

The failed framework gives the conditions in Araghchi’s proposal particular weight. It couples immediate measures affecting the waterway and the wider region with a later discussion of Iran’s nuclear programme. Araghchi’s timetable makes US acceptance the trigger for every subsequent day of the plan, including the proposed reopening and the start of talks. Trump’s reported rejection on Saturday leaves that sequence without an agreed starting point.