Trump and Iran Exchange Threats as Leaders Converge for Key U.N. Gathering. Can the Meeting Cool Rising Tensions?

Tensions between the warring countries are mounting ahead of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), with Iranian leaders and President Donald Trump exchanging a fresh round of threats.Trump on Sunday weighed whether he should “blow the entire nation up” in an interview with Fox News, warning that Iran “better behave” and saying that “very big things” would happen in the war, without offering more detail. According to the outlet, Trump described his options as “wiping Iran out, letting them rot economically, or making a deal.”A spokesperson for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Hossein Mohebbi, responded with a warning that if the U.S. were to launch fresh attacks against Iran, Tehran would use “new weapons and capabilities,” according to Iran's Fars news agency. “If a new aggression takes place, we will definitely change the weapons and geography of the war,” Mohebbi said. The threats come after active hostilities in the conflict resumed in the last month when the U.S. and Iran traded fresh strikes amid tensions over the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway in the global oil market. Meaningful negotiations between the two countries have meanwhile been stalled for we...