State media in Iran has reported that Iran’s delegation to the UN General Assembly had no talks planned with the United States, after US president Donald Trump said he expected more negotiations. Trump told media outlet Axios on Sunday that he expected talks to resume soon, a day after he rejected a proposal by Tehran to reopen the strait of Hormuz within seven days. Iran says it presented seven conditions for ending the war and reopening the strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which roughly 20% of the world’s oil and gas flowed before the war.
The strait lies at the heart of the conflict that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran in February. Following that attack, Tehran placed a chokehold on the waterway, and Washington responded with a blockade of Iranian ports. Axios said indirect talks mediated by Qatar could take place as early as today, less than a week after similar discussions between US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi.
Iran demands a seven-day ceasefire across the Middle East, including in Lebanon, where its ally Hezbollah is regularly bombarded by Israel. It also demands the unfreezing of its foreign assets, lifting sanctions on its oil sector, and an end to the US naval blockade. Trump rejected their demands on Saturday.
The Trump administration on Monday plans to release new fuel economy standards that would relax regulatory requirements for automakers to control pollution from gasoline-powered cars and light trucks. President Donald Trump said on his Truth Social media account on Saturday that the less stringent mileage requirements would “take the waste out of building cars in America” and save families “thousands on a new, beautiful and safe car,” while boosting auto production in the US. Donald Trump’s attorney general Todd Blanche argued on Sunday that the administration was permitted to ban three news outlets from the White House because “it is a privilege and not a right to be there”.
Appearing on the ABC News program This Week during the second week of the White House’s dispute over press credentialing and access, Blanche also said that the administration took the decision to ban CNN, MS Now and Politico beginning on 19 September because the president was “sick and tired” of what he considered to be those media outlets’ inaccurate reporting. US senator Thom Tillis on Sunday criticized Donald Trump, his fellow Republican, for the president’s support of Ken Paxton over incumbent John Cornyn in the Texas Senate Republican primary. The United States and China released Monday reciprocal lists of products worth about $30bn each that will see tariff cuts, in a deal expected to boost bilateral trade.
The details came days after Chinese President Xi Jinping met with president Donald Trump in Washington in his first state visit to the US since 2015. Trump justified the pending US arms sale to Taiwan to Chinese president Xi Jinping by downplaying it as just one of many sales Washington makes around the world - even asking Xi if he’d be in the market for US arms, Trump’s ambassador to China said on Sunday. House Democrats are preparing a vast oversight agenda, with investigations of Trump, his family and his administration if the party sweeps control of the chamber from Republicans in the November elections.
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