Trump threatens to ‘annihilate’ Iran, says deal will come after US midterms

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to “annihilate” Iran if Tehran refuses to reach a deal with Washington, while saying he believed an agreement would be done “right after the election” as he addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Trump delivered an unusually stark warning to Tehran, framing the choice before his administration as either allowing Iran to rebuild through a negotiated settlement or using overwhelming US military force to prevent the Islamic Republic from posing a future threat.

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“But I have a big decision to make: Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before, maybe one of the greatest in the Middle East or even the world? Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic, and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again,” Trump said.

He followed that with another blunt question.

“Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations?”

Trump nevertheless said he expected diplomacy to prevail after the US midterm elections in November. “But I believe we'll make a deal right after the election, because it doesn't make sense for them not to. They're waiting to see how I do in the midterm election,” he said.

Trump insisted, however, that the US election would not determine his position on Iran’s nuclear programme.

“What they don't realize is that I'm not running. I did that already, and won in a landslide,” he said, adding that the Republican Party was contesting the elections and that he would help it.

“I gave absolutely no credence and will not give credence to the election when it comes to Iran. It doesn't even enter my mind. The only thing that does is that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.

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The comments came as Trump defended the US military campaign against Iran and sought to portray the conflict as the culmination of a confrontation that Washington had tried to resolve through negotiations.

Trump said that after taking office last year, he had offered Iran “full economic cooperation” in exchange for ending its nuclear programme and support for terrorism, but claimed Tehran had rejected the offer.

“That was a big mistake,” he said.

Trump then pointed to US military operations against Iran, claiming that Operation Midnight Hammer had “obliterated” the country’s nuclear programme “beneath mountains of rubble”. He said Iran subsequently continued building missile and drone capabilities that threatened US forces and other countries in the region.

The US president also invoked the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and the September 11 attacks in the United States as part of his argument that Iran posed a wider security threat. He accused Iran of supporting terrorism and said the country’s leadership had celebrated the October 7 attack.

Trump also claimed that Iran’s economy had been devastated by the conflict, saying its inflation was “well over 300 percent”. He said the US military had destroyed Iran’s navy, air force, radar and anti-aircraft equipment, and had severely damaged its missile and drone manufacturing capacity. These were claims made by Trump in his address.

The president said Washington had also maintained pressure on Iran’s oil exports and shipping. The United States Navy, he said, had escorted more than 1 billion barrels of oil out of the Strait of Hormuz, with oil flows now higher than at the start of the conflict.

Trump called on other countries to join the US in “complete economic isolation of Iran” until Tehran stops attacks on commercial shipping, gives up its nuclear ambitions and ends its support for terrorism.

“The terrorist regime is behaving badly, not because they are strong and confident, but because they are weak and desperate,” Trump said.

Yet the speech left open a diplomatic route. Trump said Iran could still rebuild its economy and become “one of the greatest in the Middle East or even the world” if it reached an agreement with Washington.

His comments therefore combined one of his strongest threats against Tehran with a specific timeframe for diplomacy: immediately after the November US midterm elections.

For Trump, the central red line remained unchanged.

“The only thing that does is that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon,” he said.