Trump threatens Iran at U.N. while holding out prospect of a deal

President Donald Trump said he expects the war involving the U.S., Israel and Iran to end immediately after the midterm elections. That timetable is his prediction for the conflict’s conclusion.

Trump also said gasoline prices would take longer than the midterms to come down. He predicted they would fall once Iran seeks an end to the fighting, with the war now in its seventh month.

Renewed fighting included exchanges of strikes in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday. Energy prices reached their highest levels since late May, and the global oil benchmark exceeded $100 a barrel for the first time since July.

Before the war, a fifth of global oil trade passed through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran militarized the waterway in response to U.S. and Israeli strikes on Feb. 28 and has used it as leverage in stalled talks with the U.S.

President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran would not submit after almost seven months of war with the U.S. and Israel. He also said the country remained ready for a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

Pezeshkian set a condition for any agreement: an end to the U.S. blockade that prevents Iranian ships from using a key Gulf waterway. He said a deal would have to include that change.

Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz by attacking commercial vessels in the Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. A fifth of global oil and gas shipments normally pass through the strait. The U.S. imposed a blockade of Iranian ports and ships in April.

On Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff held indirect talks through Qatari mediators on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Iran has offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume talks on its nuclear program in seven days if the United States lifts its naval blockade, waives sanctions on Iranian oil sales and observes a ceasefire that includes Lebanon.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi outlined the proposal at a private gathering on September 24, 2026, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, according to an attendee.

The proposal resembles an agreement reached in June but calls for a faster timetable. That earlier agreement provided for a 60-day interim period and quickly collapsed as Iran resumed attacks on shipping in the strait.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States would exchange ideas and messages if an opportunity arose. His statement expressed willingness to communicate.