Trump presented Iran with a stark choice at the UN General Assembly: reach an agreement with Washington and rebuild the country, or face the rapid “annihilation” of the Islamic Republic.
He then again predicted that a deal to end the war would probably follow the US midterm elections in November.
His remarks illustrated Trump’s familiar strategy of coercive diplomacy – keeping negotiations open while also threatening overwhelming force.
But his language blurred the distinction between destroying the political system and threatening Iran itself.
International law experts have previously expressed concern at what they called “alarming rhetoric” used by US officials, including Trump himself, who has posted that the US might “obliterate” Iran’s power plants.
References on Tuesday to leaving “no chance of survival” and “no hope” for future generations will likely have stoked similar alarm. There is also an irony in delivering this warning at the United Nations, an organisation founded to save future generations from war.
Yet the speech was not a declaration that diplomacy has failed.
It was an attempt to define the terms of possible negotiations: the US remains prepared to make a deal, but only under the shadow of an existential threat.
4. Trump hails new Greenland security deal
By Bernd Debusmann Jr, White House reporter in the room
Trump also praised a new deal with Greenland under which he said the US would build two military bases in the Arctic territory.
“We will have the complete ability to do what is necessary to defend the American continent and also Europe,” he said of the deal, which he first announced on Friday.
He added that it “very much enhances” the defence alliance Nato.
The US, Denmark and Greenland held a joint signing ceremony at the UN shortly after Trump’s address.
Although Greenland is a semi-autonomous territory, it is part of the Kingdom of Denmark which primarily handles its foreign policy.
