Iran-US war latest: Tehran responds after Trump says they must choose between a peace deal and ‘annihilation’

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Donald Trump said that US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff held a productive meeting with Iranian officials — just hours after threatening to “ annihilate ” the Middle Eastern nation.

“It was a meeting that lasted for three hours”, the US president told reporters Tuesday while in New York City for the United Nations General Assembly .

“Very good meeting”, Trump added. “I can't imagine why they wouldn't want to. It's greatness, potential greatness, or obliteration”.

Earlier on Tuesday, the 80-year-old Republican delivered a combative speech at the UN, during which he said he could “annihilate” the Iranian government and “drive them into hell” if a peace deal is not reached.

He said that Tehran is now “weak and desperate”, adding: “Iran will never have a nuclear weapon”.

The Iranian delegation is reported to have walked out of the meeting upon hearing the threats, according to The Independent’ s White House correspondent Andrew Feinberg.

Meanwhile, Iran has said it is willing to reopen the beleaguered Strait of Hormuz within seven days if the US lifts military pressure and the blockade on Iranian ports, a senior Iranian official told Reuters Tuesday.

US Vice President JD Vance has said people are “very excited” about his administration’s handling of the Iran war, despite Republican candidates in the midterm election breaking with Donald Trump over the issue.

A reporter asked Vance for a response “about a growing number of Republicans in battleground states, calling for an end to the Iran war”.

“I haven't seen what you're talking about”, Vance said during a press conference Tuesday. “What I've seen is people who are very excited about what we've done. And, frankly, who don’t want to give control of Washington, D.C., over to the far-left Democrats”.

US senator Bernie Sanders has said that annihilating the population of Iran, as threatened by president Donald Trump, would amount to a war crime and an act of barbarism that the United States must never be associated with.

Writing on social media, Mr Sanders said: "No, Mr President. We should not 'annihilate' the people of Iran. That is a war crime. That is barbarism. And it is something the United States must never be associated with."

Mr Sanders described the current conflict with Iran as "illegal and unconstitutional" and called on Congress to act immediately to bring it to an end.