Tensions in the Middle East following the outbreak of Iran-US war continue to simmer for approximately seven months now. While multiple rounds of talks to end the skirmishes have failed to get a conclusive result, question on the status of the war lingers.
But now reports indicate that US President Donald Trump is likely to hold a meeting with the Gulf leaders during the UN General Assembly in New York next Tuesday.
The agenda of the probable meeting is to discuss the next steps in the war with Iran, Axios reported, citing sources. The meeting, according to the report, is expected to focus on US ideas for a postwar strategy.
Also read: US strike on Minab school, anti-govt protest crackdown: UN mission flags war crimes in Iran
Iran, UAE leaders’ meeting in India
Trump’s meeting with Gulf leaders comes over a week after Iran leaders met the Gulf side in India on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit between September 12 and 13. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian met Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on September 12 – first day of the summit.
Later, Pezeshkian said Iran and the UAE, want to “turn the page”. “For the first time since the war and the incidents that occurred in the Persian Gulf, we had a constructive exchange with the crown prince of Abu Dhabi,” he was quoted as saying by news agency AFP.
“We had a good conversation with the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, and agreed to put the past behind us and look to the future,” Pezeshkian told Iranian reporters after the conclusion of the BRICS Summit. He didn’t provide further details.
But Trump at the time showed no interest in the meeting and said he ‘doesn’t care’. “I don’t care. That’s up to them,” he told reporters during a visit to Ireland.
Also read: ‘No aggressive element’: Pakistan on defence pact with Saudi Arabia amid Houthi strikes on Mecca
Iran leaders at UNGA next week?
Pezeshkian is also scheduled to address the General Assembly on Wednesday, though his travel to New York is ‘uncertain’, according to reports. Abbas Mousavi, Pezeshkian’s chief of protocol, said on Monday it was still unclear how many members of the Iranian delegation would be issued visas by the United States and when.
Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the leaders of several countries involved in trying to mediate an end to the war will also be at the United Nations next week.
Also read: Mecca alarm, Red Sea grip: How the Houthis have opened a new front in the war in West Asia
The UN Security Council may hold an informal meeting with Arab leaders next week, diplomats said, at which Iran is expected to be the key topic of discussion.
War crimes allegations against US
Amid simmering tensions, human rights experts commissioned by the UN’s top human rights body say they have found “reasonable grounds” to believe the United States committed war crimes in two strikes in Iran, including on a school in the southern city of Minab. They also accuse Iran’s theocratic government of carrying out crimes against humanity against its own people in a report published Thursday, Reuters reported.
The report, while not binding, adds to international evidence gathered about crimes in the war in Iran, and could eventually be used in efforts to reach justice in international courts.
