Secretary of State Marco Rubio abruptly ended talks and ordered the Iranian delegation to leave the U.S. after negotiations stalled, yet again, with no clear sign of a breakthrough more than seven months into the conflict.
And now, President Donald Trump is directly warning Iran it’s “possible” he will go harder with strikes in the Middle East after the midterm elections in November and revealed the U.S. military has significantly rebuilt its arsenal in recent months.
The latest messaging from the White House and State Department signals an increasingly strained diplomatic track, after days of negotiations failed to close the gap between Washington and Tehran over the terms of ending the war.
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Asked in an interview with Time whether he would “ramp up bombing after the midterms,” Trump replied: “Possible.”
Further pressed on whether such an escalation was under consideration, the president declined to discuss potential targets but said the U.S. had spent months rebuilding its arsenal.
“We have a lot of weapons. You know, weve been stocking up for the last six months,” Trump said.
Trump also used the word “possible” when asked whether he “might annihilate Iran.”
After little progress in weekend meetings involving Iranian officials and Qatari mediators, Rubio told Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his delegation on Monday that they needed to leave New York, a U.S. official confirmed to Fox News Digital after Axios first reported it.
Rubio concluded the Iranians had “overstayed their welcome” after the high-level U.N. meetings had ended. Araghchi had remained in New York for indirect talks seeking to end the blockade of oil and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, ending the conflict overall and restarting negotiations over Irans nuclear program.
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Trump said in his speech to the United Nation’s General Assembly last week that he would continue to make sure Iran is not able to obtain nuclear weapons.
Araghchi and his team departed early Tuesday. Iran disputed the U.S. account, saying the delegations Monday night departure had already been scheduled and communicated to the State Department on Sept. 17.
The order to leave amounted to an unusually sharp diplomatic rebuke at a moment when mediators are still trying to keep negotiations alive.
The latest talks have centered on a seven-day confidence-building proposal aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz and reviving the June framework that briefly halted the fighting. Qatar has been shuttling messages between Washington and Tehran, with the two sides still divided largely over the sequencing of concessions â including when Iran would reopen the strait, what nuclear steps Tehran would take and what economic relief the U.S. would provide in return.
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