U.S. President Donald Trump said he is deciding how to respond to Iran and is open to meeting Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian at the United Nations General Assembly. He said he is weighing several options, from further military strikes to economic pressure and negotiations, and will make a major decision soon.
Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst said on the 20th that he had just spoken with Trump by phone, and that the president said he was in "decision mode" and that something very big would happen in the near future.
Yingst said Trump laid out the options he is considering as wiping out Iran, strangling it economically, or reaching a deal. The president said the question was when to blow up the entire country, and that Iran had better behave itself, according to Yingst.
Yingst added that when asked whether he would meet Pezeshkian at the General Assembly, Trump said he was probably open to it. Trump's remarks are read as pressing Iran toward a deal by raising the prospect of a large-scale attack while leaving the door open to a face-to-face meeting with Pezeshkian.
Pezeshkian is attending the General Assembly this week and is scheduled to speak on the 23rd. Trump is set to address the gathering on the 22nd, drawing attention to whether the two countries, currently at war, will hold contact at the leaders' level.
Yingst also said Trump stated that the United States remains in contact with Yemen's pro-Iranian Houthi rebels and that the Houthis have agreed not to fight the United States. The comments appear aimed at reassuring Americans that the Houthis will not target the United States, at a time when the group's intensified offensive against Saudi Arabia is sharply worsening the situation in the Middle East.
