U.S. holds three-hour talks with Iran at UNGA as Rubio meets Lavrov on the same day

Two diplomatic threads, one frantic week in New York

NEW YORK / WASHINGTON. On Tuesday, American envoys sat across from an Iranian delegation for three hours in New York. On Wednesday morning, Secretary of State Marco Rubio walked into a room with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. By any measure, the 81st U.N. General Assembly high-level week put the two most combustible foreign-policy files in Washington on the table simultaneously, with midterm elections less than six weeks away and no deal in hand on either front.

President Donald Trump told reporters at the U.N. General Assembly that U.S. officials had a "very good" three-hour meeting with Iranian leaders on Tuesday, saying they had "a very productive meeting." Envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who have led the administration's back-channel negotiations with Tehran, took part in the session, Trump said. Trump added that a follow-on meeting was scheduled "in the very near future," though the White House referred reporters to the president's own comments when asked where the second round would take place.

The talks were happening even as Trump kept the military option loudly on the table. Speaking on the first day of the U.N. General Assembly, Trump threatened to "annihilate" Iran. Iran's military did not absorb that quietly. The Armed Forces General Staff, Iran's highest military body, warned that it is ready to respond with "crushing" attacks more severe than any it has launched so far in the war. The public exchange made clear how narrow the diplomatic lane actually is.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian became the highest-ranking Iranian official to set foot on American soil since the start of the Middle East war, which began in late February with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran. The United States approved U.N. visits for part of the Iranian delegation despite the war, but the group faces movement restrictions, according to the State Department. The Iranian president's communications team was denied visas and did not travel.

After a separate bilateral meeting with British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Trump told reporters, "I think that a settlement is going to be reached. They want to talk to us. They have been talking to us, even today they've been talking to us, and the relationship is developing. But we can't let them have a nuclear weapon."

Pezeshkian led the Iranian delegation at the General Assembly and addressed the body on Iran's positions regarding "international developments," with a particular focus on the war with the U.S. and Israel, according to Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency.

Rubio and Lavrov: Ukraine's energy offer in the room

The Iran session Tuesday fed directly into Wednesday's separate track. Secretary of State Rubio met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in New York on September 23 on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, according to the State Department. The meeting came as Washington continued diplomatic efforts related to Russia's war against Ukraine, following President Trump's talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky at the U.N. on September 22.

Zelensky put a concrete offer on the table. Zelensky said after meeting Trump that Ukraine is ready for an energy ceasefire if Russia agrees to the same terms. Zelensky said he did not know Moscow's position and expressed hope "the American side will find a way...to bring them to any kind of negotiations," even as the war has raged since Russia's all-out invasion began in February 2022.

The background for Rubio walking into that room Wednesday was anything but encouraging. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in intensifying long-range strikes targeting a growing number of civilian sites, including factories, warehouses, energy and port infrastructure, and ships in the Black Sea. The last substantive Rubio-Lavrov encounter, in Malaysia in July, produced a description of a Russian "new approach" but no agreement. Moscow has consistently ignored a U.S.-proposed ceasefire agreement, has escalated attacks on Ukrainian civilians, and Russian President Vladimir Putin declared in June that "all of Ukraine is ours."

At the July session in Manila, Lavrov reportedly told Rubio that it was unacceptable for the United States to continue arms sales to Kyiv. The Russian Foreign Ministry's framing going into Wednesday's New York meeting was noticeably generic. Russian officials said the agenda would cover "issues of cooperation between the two countries at the World Organization," a formulation that committed to nothing specific on Ukraine.

Rubio and Lavrov have met several times over the past year as the Trump administration has sought to broker an end to Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine. They met on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in September 2025, when Rubio urged Moscow to "halt the bloodshed" and take meaningful steps toward ending the war. That appeal produced no breakthrough. The Alaska summit in August between Trump and Putin also ended without a deal; Rubio said afterward that "we're not at the precipice" of a peace agreement.

Washington's parallel-tracks bet

The dual diplomatic push at UNGA reflects a deliberate administration strategy. The Trump team is working on a "day-after" plan for Iran expected to be finalized after the midterms, according to Axios, which cited three sources with direct knowledge. Trump said on September 16 that Iran had contacted the United States directly and was seeking a deal, and told reporters after arriving in North Carolina, "Hopefully we are toward the end of the war" and that Iran "wants to make a deal." He later told a rally in Gastonia that the conflict could have a "really good ending," while suggesting it might enter a different phase after the November midterms.

The Iran and Ukraine files are not separate in Washington's calculations. The Russia sanctions legislation that cleared the House this month already included language linking tariff pressure on countries that trade with Moscow, and the question of how hard to press Russia has complicated the administration's posture toward China at the same time it runs back-channel talks with Tehran. Meanwhile, Pezeshkian speaking in New York while his country is actively engaged in combat with the United States is, as CNN noted, virtually unprecedented in modern diplomacy.

On Capitol Hill, the seven House Republicans who voted last week to end the Iran war authorization represent the high-water mark of congressional pressure on the executive branch to show diplomatic progress before Election Day. Neither chamber has scheduled a formal vote specifically on the Iran-deal framework, but members of both parties have asked the White House for a classified briefing on the state of negotiations. None has been scheduled as of Wednesday.

Rubio, who traveled to New York from September 20 to 23, had the Lavrov meeting first on his public schedule Wednesday morning, with Deputy Secretary Christopher Landau and a full senior-level State Department delegation attending.

No readout from either the Rubio-Lavrov session or the U.S.-Iran talks had been formally released by either government as of Wednesday afternoon Washington time. The State Department's last public readout of a Rubio-Lavrov meeting, from September 2025, was three sentences long.

What to Watch

• State Department readout: The official summary of Wednesday's Rubio-Lavrov meeting will signal whether any new Ukraine ceasefire framework, including Zelensky's energy-truce offer, was transmitted to Moscow. Watch for language about "meaningful steps" or, notably, its absence.
• Second Iran meeting location: Trump said a follow-on session with Iran is set "in the very near future" but gave no location. Whether it happens in New York before the UNGA session closes on September 28, or in a third country, will tell reporters a lot about momentum.
• Trump-Pezeshkian encounter: Trump said Sunday he would "probably" be willing to meet with Pezeshkian on the U.N. sidelines, but no plans for such an encounter have been announced by either side. Any confirmed scheduling would be an immediate top-tier news event.
• Congressional briefings: Members of the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations committees have been pressing for classified updates on Iran talks. Whether the administration provides one before the midterm recess is a live question.
• Drone and missile activity: Russian jet-powered drones struck Kyiv on Wednesday, injuring eight people, a reminder that the battlefield keeps moving regardless of what diplomats say in hotel conference rooms in New York.

Sources: U.S. State Department public schedule, Sept. 23, 2026; Kyiv Independent; Al Jazeera; CBS News; Reuters via U.S. News; CNBC; Axios; Al Jazeera explainer; AFP/Korea Times; Streamlinefeed/AFP; Yahoo News/Rubio-Lavrov Malaysia readout