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Iran and US hold talks on sidelines of UN summit, says Trump

Iranian officials held three hours of talks with US special envoy Steve Witkoff on the sidelines of the UN general assembly, Donald Trump disclosed on Tuesday. He said there would a further meeting in the very near future. Witkoff said he felt very good about the meeting, the first such contact since the US vice-president, JD Vance, met an Iranian delegation to agree a memorandum of understanding in Switzerland in June. Iranian officials confirmed the meeting with Witkoff involved its foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, and was mediated by diplomats from Qatar. A senior Iranian official also indicated that the country was prepared to reopen the strait of Hormuz within a week, so long as the US took reciprocal steps to ease the military and economic pressure it is applying on Iran. Previously, Iran had set seven onerous preconditions for lifting its blockade on the strait, one of the world’s key oil shipping routes, including an end to the US war “on all fronts” and a commitment by the US to end all aggressive actions against Iran, including sanctions. The new position, revealed amid frantic backstage negotiations at the UN general assembly in New York and set out by an Iranian official in Tehran to the Japanese news agency Kyodo and then to Reuters, would involve relaxing some of those preconditions. The official claimed the position had been approved by Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, and the country’s supreme national security council, although some Iranian media close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) denied any new position had been adopted, reflecting disputes in Tehran. Diplomats had been testing the ground for possible talks between the US and Iran, with Qatar’s diplomats in talks with Araghchi. A meeting between Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, and Trump had largely been ruled out as too combustible, however. Pezeshkian is due on Wednesday to address the UN general assembly, where most of the Iranian delegation left the hall during Trump’s speech on Tuesday after he described Iran as the bully of the Middle East and the number one terror organisation on Earth. But earlier, the IRGC issued a statement that said there was no contradiction between staging negotiations and waging war at the same time, a position echoed by Iran’s chief negotiator, Mohammad Ghalibaf, in recent remarks delivered online to the Iranian parliament. The official said Iran was seeking signs from Washington that it was prepared to return to negotiations and take steps toward ending its military blockade of Iranian ports and halting military operations related to the strait of Hormuz. In that case Iran was prepared to reopen the strategic waterway within seven days and return to the negotiating table, according to the official. Such preconditions are less stringent than those issued by other senior Iranian figures in the previous 48 hours. Experience has shown that initially appealing Iranian offers can emerge to be more complex once the small print is revealed, and there is a hardly disguised tussle being played out in Tehran between hardliners and figures like Pezeshkian over the value of any talks. Resolving these disputes is not made easier by the low profile kept by the Supreme Leader, normally the arbiter in such internal ructions. Trump, in his remarks to the general assembly, said he had a big decision to make: whether to annihilate Iran, or to help it become a great country. “Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations?” he asked, adding he expected Iran to make a deal immediately after the US midterm elections. Overall, his demeanour, and the mixed signals out of Tehran, suggest the two sides are still too far apart to reach a deal, which would have to start with agreement between Iran and Oman on a new route for commercial shipping in the strait of Hormuz that largely goes through Iranian waters. The Gulf states have not endorsed such a deal. Saudi Arabia also wanted to be a signatory and authoriser of the route, but Iran insisted it had to be endorsed only by the two countries in which the strait’s waterways pass – Iran and Oman. Tehran is also under growing pressure as the US blockade of its oil exports plays havoc with its currency reserves and domestic inflation. In his speech, Trump called on other countries to isolate Iran economically, including by demanding that all nations prevent any Iranian civilian planes from landing at their airports. US diplomats have warned Turkey and Iraq to comply or face sanctions. Many of the Gulf states were also planning to urge Trump to do more to press Israel to meet its commitments under the peace plan to withdraw from Gaza. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, prompted a walk-out by the Israeli delegation when he described Gaza as “the world’s largest graveyard and the most inhumane and shameful concentration camp of our time”. He added: “Israel refuses to stop the occupation. We are faced with a genocidal mindset that can never get enough of killing. No one with a sense of humanity, mercy, or compassion, no one guided by justice and conscience can possibly remain indifferent to this picture.” Jordan’s King Abdullah, in his address, claimed: “With Israel, resolutions end where they began on paper. This result is a state without restraint. This government’s sense of impunity has reached terrifying levels. It no longer feels compelled to ask: ‘Can we get away with this?’ It already knows the answer.” He added that what was unfolding across the occupied West Bank was not a series of isolated acts but rather “elements of a single policy to compel an entire population to leave their land. And there is a name for that: forced displacement. And that is a war crime.” A statement from eight Gulf foreign ministers also called on Israel to immediately fulfil its outstanding commitments under the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, including by ensuring the immediate, safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance and early recovery supplies, and facilitating the rehabilitation of critical infrastructure. The ministers reiterated their categorical rejection of any measures aimed at the expulsion or the forced displacement of the Palestinian people from their homeland or attempts to alter the territorial or demographic character of the occupied Palestinian territory.

Hurricane Polo, rapidly intensifying from strong El Niño patterns, rages off coast of Mexico

A tropical storm off the south-west coast of Mexico has intensified into a category 5 monster in fewer than 24 hours, fueled by stronger than usual El Niño weather patterns in the Pacific Ocean. Hurricane Polo was sending out maximum sustained winds of 165mph (266km/h) on Tuesday as its center churned about 215 miles (346km) south of the coastal city of Zihuatanejo, in Guerrero state. On Monday, Polo was only a tropical storm with winds below 74mph (120km/h). Its rapid and sudden growth is testament to the dominance of this year’s so-called super El Niño, which set a record on Monday as the most extreme on record, and has amplified a number of extreme weather events globally. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Mexico was likely to avoid a direct hit, but warned that further intensification was likely, and that life-threatening flooding and mudslides were possible inland, along with dangerous surf and rip current conditions. El Niño occurs when extended ocean temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific, and near the equator, rise above their historical average. Meteorologists say the phenomenon increases disruptive winds and curtails other conditions favorable to storm development in the Atlantic basin, which remains quiet with less than three months to go in this year’s hurricane season. Conversely, it promotes increased activity in the Pacific, where the 2026 El Niño remains one of the strongest on record. “The water temperatures in two separate areas, the north-central Pacific and off the Mexican coast, are running well above average,” Paul Pastelok, AccuWeather’s lead long-range meteorologist, said in the online weather service’s fall hurricane outlook last month. “We are seeing a strong impact in both the Atlantic and Pacific basins, with extreme wind shear limiting Atlantic storm development, while the Pacific remains quite active, as we expected back in the spring.” Hurricane Polo’s single-day intensification also fits into the assessment of University of Miami senior research associate Brian McNoldy on his tropical Atlantic blog that El Niño, which he said was only “moderate” towards the beginning of September, was “forecast to become very strong, likely the strongest on record, by later this fall and into winter”. Polo is the 18th named storm, and seventh hurricane, of the 2026 Pacific season, which runs from 15 May until 30 November. By contrast, the Atlantic basin, which has a six-month season from June until November, has seen only six named tropical storms and no hurricanes so far. It is the first time in 112 years that no Atlantic hurricanes have formed by 21 September, and 2026 could join 1907 and 1914 as the only years without one being recorded.

EU removes two oligarchs from Russia sanctions list as deadline looms

The EU has agreed to remove two Russian billionaires, Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman, from its sanctions list, while extending restrictions on nearly 3,000 individuals and companies accused of supporting the war on Ukraine for the next three years. With an end-of-Tuesday deadline looming to preserve the Russia blacklist, the EU’s 27 member states found a compromise that meant delisting the two oligarchs in spite of very few countries wanting this outcome. EU sanctions have to be approved unanimously. France stunned and infuriated EU governments this month when it called for Usmanov, a Russian-Uzbek national, to be removed from the list on “national security” grounds, reported to refer to a prisoner exchange deal involving French nationals and Azerbaijan. Luxembourg then asked for the same treatment for Fridman, the Russian-Israeli magnate, who is suing the Grand Duchy for $16bn (£12bn) for freezing his assets. The exemptions angered many EU countries which believe it sets a bad precedent by allowing member states to weaken sanctions in defence of national interests. Ukraine criticised the removal of the men from the sanctions list as unacceptable. Shortly after the decision emerged, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, wrote on social media: “No name on the sanctions list is there by accident: each one represents a reason why this war started and continues to this day.” The Ukrainian foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, called the decision “shameful and unjustifiable” on X. “Moscow is celebrating because it got what it wanted: a sense ‌of impunity, the humiliation of the EU, and division among Europeans,” he added. In order to enable the delistings that many EU member states found unpalatable, it was proposed that the sanctions be rolled over for 36 months, rather than the usual six. A spokesperson for Ireland’s EU presidency, which brokered the talks, said the bloc had reached “a difficult compromise”. They said: “Until now, these listings have been reviewed and assessed on a six-monthly basis; today’s decision to renew on a 36-month basis enhances the durability and predictability of the EU sanctions framework.” A decision had been expected earlier this week, but Latvia’s government, facing parliamentary elections on 3 October, announced a last-minute objection to the delistings on Monday. Latvia’s prime minister, Andris Kulbergs, said late on Monday night that he could not accept the proposed compromise and instructed his foreign minister to enter talks with Paris and Brussels to find a solution. Diplomats said Latvia had finally agreed to abstain on the two delistings. The blacklist includes Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, and foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, as well as Duma deputies, the country’s major banks, energy companies and military industrial complex. Senior EU officials have promised to present about 1,600 new designations – individuals and entities involved in the Russian military industrial complex – to foreign ministers next month. But the latest standoff, which followed the tortuous agreement on the EU’s 21st round of sanctions in July, suggests the process could be difficult.

Russians have a pragmatic approach to politics | Letter

To an old Russian like me, Rafael Behr is as wrong as sin, because he is watching (and describing) the smoke without seeing the fire (To understand the threat to our real democracy, watch Putin’s fake one, 16 September). In their unqualified admiration for your democracy, our leaders have done a lot to emulate it: in 1861, Alexander II abolished serfdom; in 1905, Nicholas II allowed the creation of our elected parliament; in 1917, Kerensky allowed women to vote; in 1990, Gorbachev reintroduced a multiparty system; he, Yeltsin and Medvedev resigned in 1991, 1999 and 2020 respectively (like your Wilson, Thatcher, Blair, Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss and Starmer in 1976, 1990, 2007, 2016, 2019, 2022, again 2022, and 2026 respectively). But ordinary Russians are up to their ears in their age-long que será, será approach to politics. So there has never been a real rebellion for the Kremlin to squelch. Had Mr Behr lived in our provincial towns instead of Moscow in the 1990s, he would have produced a very different article. Mergen Mongush Moscow, Russia • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

US to build new military bases in Greenland as deal seeks to end tensions between Nato allies - as it happened

And, on that note, we will be closing the blog for today. For continued coverage of the UN general assembly week and tonight’s meeting between the US president, Donald Trump, and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, join my US colleagues over here: Trump is also meeting with UK’s Andy Burnham right now, and that is being covered by my UK colleagues here: Meanwhile, here is the summary of the key events in Europe today: Denmark and Greenland have signed a new security deal for Greenland with the US, hoping to end months of bitter disputes over US president Donald Trump’s expansive plans to acquire or otherwise control the territory (17:32, 17:36, 17:39, 17:49, 18:00, 18:02, 18:11, 18:29). Earlier Trump hailed the deal as “an unprecedented agreement” which he said would “also protect Europe in addition to America” (16:57), as he praised Nato as “growing stronger than ever before” (16:59). The US president also said his message to Russia’s president Vladimir Putin would be to “settle the war” (15:44), as he repeated his ambition would be to end the conflict soon (16:49, 17:00). Separately, The EU has agreed to remove two Russian billionaires, Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman, from its Russia sanctions list, while extending restrictions on nearly 3,000 individuals and companies accused of supporting the war on Ukraine for the next three years (11:15, 16:13, 17:02, 17:24, 18:17). The decision was heavily criticised by Ukraine, which called it unacceptable and “shameful” (18:18), after previously backing the main opposing country – Latvia – in its fight to block the delisting (16:15). If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com. I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.

Briton pleads guilty to ‘recklessly’ causing death of his son in Cyprus

A British man has pleaded guilty to “recklessly” causing the death of his son, 10 weeks after the toddler fell from a fourth-floor hotel window in Cyprus. Josh Foster, 37, who appeared before the district court of Paphos on Tuesday, accepted the charge of causing the accident through a “rash, reckless and dangerous act” on the first day of a family holiday near Paphos on 12 July. The case was adjourned until 5 October, when the judge ordered the man to return for sentencing. Under the maximum penalty he could face up to four years in prison. Explaining his client’s decision to enter the plea, the defence lawyer, Alexandros Alexandrou, said the alternative was the prospect of prolonged criminal proceedings. If he had contested the charge, a series of hearings would have ensued, forcing the father to repeatedly confront the circumstances of the two-year-old’s death. His client had broken down inconsolably when he appeared in the same courtroom to be formally charged in July. “[A trial] would be disturbing for him, for his family,” said Alexandrou, emphasising that the Briton, his wife and other relatives were still processing the grief of their “unimaginable loss”. “In order to end this story he accepted [the accusation],” he said, adding the defence would present mitigating factors in an attempt to secure a lenient verdict. “If the maximum sentence were imposed, the defence would appeal. This kind of penalty is not acceptable from our side.” After posting €30,000 (about £26,000) in bail to return to the UK to attend the toddler’s funeral in August, Foster was forced under threat of extradition to return to Cyprus and surrender his passport by 14 September. Until last week Foster had hoped the charge would be suspended. In what amounted to a desperate plea for reprieve, the Briton, a senior employee at one of the big four accounting firms, had appealed to George Savvides, the attorney general of Cyprus, to intervene. As the island’s top legal authority, Savvides has the power to confer clemency by discontinuing criminal procedures on humanitarian grounds. Alexandrou had lodged the appeal saying: “In these exceptional circumstances, we do not believe a continued criminal process serves the public interest. The focus now should be on [the family’s] welfare and recovery.” The request was denied. Addressing Paphos’s district court last week, state prosecutors said that while Savvides recognised the father’s grief, there had been loss of life and it was a matter of “public interest” that the criminal proceedings went ahead. Until the eve of the plea hearing it had remained unknown how the defendant would contest the charge of causing his son’s death. The boy, who would have turned three last week, fell from a fourth-floor window at the King Evelthon hotel and resort on the Chlorakas coastline outside Paphos. The father claims he placed him on the windowsill – along a corridor leading to a lift that his relatives were about to use – not realising the window was ajar. The toddler then fell backwards, suffering fatal cranial injuries when he hit a veranda 10 metres (33ft) below. In a country so dependent on tourism, criticism has mounted as human rights defenders, media pundits and diplomats have questioned the perceived lack of compassion with which officials have approached the case. While the letter of the law had been adhered to so assiduously by police and court officials, “no one had asked why the window did not have bars”, said a diplomat based in Nicosia, the eastern Mediterranean island’s capital. “It’s perplexing that there’s all this emphasis on the father being a criminal and so little focus on the circumstances in which the boy died,” he added. “Why was there even a window there and why was it open? In a country where permits to build hotels are often lax, these are questions that should not be ignored.” In an editorial last week, the Cyprus Mail echoed that sentiment. “Why are authorities so eager to treat tragic accidents as criminal acts?” it asked, after a similar incident in which the three-year-old son of African immigrants fell to his death from the balcony of his family’s sixth-floor apartment in Nicosia. Like the Briton, his parents were held in custody for several days although they were eventually released without charge. The attorney general’s decision to go ahead with the prosecution – described as both disappointing and surprising by Alexandrou – had stirred further debate. The role of Cyprus’s attorney general has long been regarded as one of the most controversial legacies of the island’s former status as a British colony. The island’s leading human rights lawyer, Achilleas Demetriades, said the Briton had fallen foul of “an archaic system” that was long overdue an overhaul. Under Cyprus’s postcolonial justice system, such decisions remained entirely at the discretion of the attorney general and could not be challenged, he said. For years there had been talk of amending the constitution to resolve the anomaly, he added. “It’s in the process of being amended because the office of the attorney general, when it takes this type of decision, should have judicial overview which it currently does not. “Sadly, this man has fallen victim to an archaic system in which one man, the attorney general, has unfettered power. This certainly raises human rights issues.”

Up to 169 killed in Yemen as Houthis battle for Red Sea coastal heights

As many as 169 people have been reportedly killed in Yemen in the last three days as Iran-aligned Houthis battle Saudi-backed government forces for control of strategic heights on the Red Sea coast, while thousands flee the violence. Houthi military officials said at least 118 people had been killed in clashes as well as Saudi air and artillery strikes on Taiz, al-Jawf, Marib and Saada provinces since Sunday, Agence France-Presse reported. Yemeni government sources have said at least 36 people have been killed on their side of the conflict. The Houthis accused Saudi Arabia of striking the port city of Mocha on Tuesday, killing six civilians, including two children. The group also said a Saudi strike on a prison in al-Jawf province, north-western Yemen, killed nine detainees. The Saudi government, which backs Yemen’s UN-recognised government against Houthi forces, on Tuesday issued an alert in the south of the country before potential strikes, after the Houthis launched strikes at the Saudi capital, Riyadh, at the weekend for the first time in years. The renewed fighting came after a dramatic offensive launched by the Houthis three weeks earlier in which the group seized control of much of Yemen’s Red Sea coast from government-aligned forces. They were the most significant territorial gains in the last four years of the civil war in the country. The offensive has upended global energy markets, which are already reeling from the Iranian closure of the strait of Hormuz, and further expanded the regional scope of the US-Iran war, now in its seventh month. Last week the Houthis took control of Mocha and other strategic cities, which gave them control over the Bab al-Mandab strait, a key shipping lane home to 10% of all global maritime traffic that has gained renewed importance after the closure of the strait of Hormuz. The clashes have compounded an already dire humanitarian crisis, where about 22 million people need humanitarian assistance and 5.2 million people are already internally displaced. Yemen’s civil war started in 2014 when the Houthis seized control of the country’s capital and toppled the government. A Saudi-led coalition then intervened in an aerial campaign on behalf of the internationally recognised Yemeni government and allied militias. A UN-brokered ceasefire was established in 2022, which had largely held until the Houthis launched the current offensive. In recent days, clashes have focused on the strategic Kahboub mountains near the Red Sea coast as the Houthis seek to consolidate recent territorial gains. Government forces have been trying to hold the line against the Houthi advance on multiple fronts to prevent them from seizing the mountain range. Control of the mountains would give the Houthis a strategic vantage point over Red Sea coastal areas and would further cut off Aden, the seat of Yemeni government forces, from the western coast. Seizing the mountains would also complicate future government counterattacks. The Houthis have advanced on multiple fronts, particularly the outskirts of Taiz province and the coastal area of Ras al-Ara, with the greater goal of controlling the Kahboub mountains. Media affiliated with the Houthis have reported gains in the area, while government media said its fighters had successfully repelled Houthi incursions. Since the Houthi campaign was launched, the group has routed government-aligned forces from western Yemen. The prospect of an Iranian-aligned force controlling Bab al-Mandeb has worried Saudi Arabia as it would place two shipping lanes vital to its energy exports in the hands of Iran and its allies. Saudi Arabia has launched hundreds of strikes on Yemen in recent days to try to stop the Houthis, with little success. Donald Trump reportedly considered striking the Houthis over the weekend but called them off at the last minute, while the UK said it would assist aerial refuelling of Saudi aircraft engaged in defensive missions, leaving open the prospect of further international intervention. Members of the G7 have called on Iran to stop arming the Houthis. In a joint statement released ahead of the UN general assembly, member states urged the Houthis to stop their strikes on Saudi Arabia, which have damaged key oil infrastructure and wounded dozens. “We call on the Houthis to immediately cease all military actions, all threats and attacks against civilian shipping, and to return to the political process in good faith,” the statement read. The clashes have killed about 700 people and displaced more than 100,000 people, pushing some Yemenis to flee the fighting via sea. Civilians have fled westwards across the Red Sea to Djibouti, while aid groups warn conditions for those remaining in Yemen are deteriorating. Babar Baloch, a UN refugee agency spokesperson, said on Tuesday that displacement inside Yemen could rise to 230,000 people and more than 10,000 could flee to Djibouti if fighting continued. Saudi Arabia has tried to marshal international support to roll back the Houthi offensive, with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, asking Trump to strike the Houthis – a request Trump has thus far refused. Trump held a call with the head of Yemen’s governing body, Rashad al-Alimi, on Monday, with al-Alimi asking the US for military assistance. Trump expressed solidarity but did not promise military support, a source told Agence France-Presse.