First US-Iran talks in months raise hopes for progress despite no concessions

UNITED NATIONS/DUBAI: The first shuttle talks between the United States and Iran in months raised hopes on Wednesday (Sep 23) that the adversaries could make progress towards ending the Middle East war, although neither side spelled out any change in its position.Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner communicated through mediators on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, the first such contacts since an interim ceasefire agreement collapsed in July."Steve and Jared had a very productive meeting today with mediators of Iran," US President Donald Trump said. "I think there's a lot of momentum for them to make a deal.

It's what we're hearing from everybody."Earlier, Trump had told the UN General Assembly in a speech that he had to decide whether to make a deal with Iran or "annihilate" it. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was due to address the gathering on Wednesday.Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said Tehran had engaged with the United States through a Qatari mediator in New York and conveyed conditions, including an end to the war on all fronts and a halt to US "acts of aggression".Some Iranian state media had earlier reported that Araghchi and Witkoff had met, but Iranian officials clarified to Reuters that it was not face-to-face.

First reported by CNA.