Trump threatens from the UN to "annihilate" the Iranians if they do not reach an agreement

WashingtonDonald Trump has reworked the speech he used last year to address the UN General Assembly and has incorporated a long reference to the war in Iran. Beyond attacking the United Nations, the US president repeated this Tuesday the same version of the conflict that he has been preaching for seven months: that the regime is finished and that "it will never be allowed to build a nuclear bomb." He did acknowledge, however, that "the only thing that has not disappeared [in Iran] is inflation, which is destroying the country." Americans, who see the price of gasoline continuing to rise, probably have some comments to add to these words from the president. Last week the Federal Reserve decided to raise interest rates for the first time since 2023 due to the latest inflation data in the country, which is already hovering around 3.4%.

The US president has appeared at the UN to once again defend his military campaign in the Middle East, which was supposed to be a "field trip" of about four weeks and has ended up drifting into a war with no exit and a diplomatic fiasco at the gates of the November midterms. Trump has presented the conflict as a necessary step to maintain peace. "While others have spoken of peace, I have made it a reality. While others have ignored threats, I have confronted them. While others have spoken of courage, the United States has demonstrated it," he stated, and then repeated that he has put an end to eight wars.

Despite the Pentagon's depleted arsenal, which is being consumed at a frantic pace, Trump has again threatened to "annihilate" Iran and "send it to hell" if the regime does not capitulate and reach an agreement. "Will a deal be made with Iran that allows them to rebuild and create a country much greater than it ever was before?", said the tycoon, describing the dilemma he says he faces. "Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic, and do it quickly, without ever again giving them the chance to kill and destroy people and countries? Do I send them to hell without any chance of survival and without any hope of future greatness or future generations?".

After promising hell to the Iranians, Trump has done himself a favor and granted a month of grace to the ayatollahs: "I think we will reach a deal after the elections." The US president implicitly acknowledges that the Islamic Republic will continue to maintain the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz in order to further erode his dwindling popularity. Much to the chagrin of many of the Republican congressmen seeking reelection this November, Trump had already taken it upon himself in Dallas to turn the event into a referendum on his own person.

Unlike the tycoon, the Iranians have practically not needed to open their mouths to make a show of strength. Despite the war, the State Department has allowed the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, and a small delegation to travel to New York. At no point has Pezeshkian shown any interest—at least publicly—in meeting with Trump in the corridors of the UN. Hours after speaking at the General Assembly, the US president assured the press that an American delegation had met with the Iranians. A meeting that has not yet been confirmed by Tehran.

According to the US leader, the meeting "lasted at least three hours" and "went very well." The Republican said that the special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, were at the meeting.

Attacks on the UN and the ICC

During his speech, Trump celebrated the military intervention in Venezuela last January, where the US military deposed Nicolás Maduro as the country's leader. Unlike the Iranian and Cuban representatives, who left the room when the Republican attacked and belittled them, the interim Venezuelan president Delcy Rodríguez listened attentively as the US leader boasted about having achievedcontrol of a large part of the country's crude oil reserves.Last year Trump took to the podium of the General Assembly to disparage the body founded as one of the pillars of the new international order following the Second World War. One year after saying that the UN only served to make symbolic statements, the tycoon is the life president of the Peace Board, which has yet to achieve any tangible milestone on the ground beyond pompous and repetitive announcements about the peace process in Gaza. But that has not stopped the tycoon from claiming again that he has put an end to the Gaza war.

Beyond attacking the UN, which he has again accused of imposing an "extreme left agenda", Trump has also attacked the International Criminal Court (ICC). For months his administration has declared open war on the ICC, and has encouraged its member countries to abandon the Rome Statute in order to erode the body's capacity to act. An idea he reiterated from the podium: "We will never allow members of the US armed forces, or anyone else, to be investigated or subjected to show trials by an anti-American court. I urge the people of all ICC member countries to officially renounce this out-of-control institution immediately".