Trump says he hopes war with Iran is nearing its end

Update, 17 September, 12:08 Israel time

A verbatim exchange from Trump's remarks has now been circulated. The Telegram channel Abu Ali Express published the president saying in Hebrew translation that he hoped the end of the war with Iran was getting closer, and that Iran wanted to reach an agreement. In the same exchange, a reporter asked him whether he had heard from the Iranians directly, and he answered yes. The channel gives no location or date for the exchange and does not identify the reporter or the outlet that put the question.

Ynet's English-language edition has also carried the account for readers outside Israel. Ynetnews framed the New York gathering as an Iran summit, saying Trump claims direct contact with Tehran while the United States again bars the Palestinian Authority chairman from travelling to the General Assembly. The English version adds no named source for the contact with Tehran and no comment from the Iranian side, and it too attributes the Gulf leaders' meeting to Axios rather than to its own reporting.

Neither report names a channel through which the messages from Tehran were passed, and there is still no statement from the White House, from any Gulf government or from Iran on the meeting or on the claimed contact.

Update, 17 September, 09:08 Israel time

Trump has spoken publicly about ending the war with Iran in remarks reported alongside the account of the planned New York meeting. Ynet reported that the president repeated his claim that Tehran "very much wants" to reach an agreement to end the war, and said he had heard this directly from the Iranian side. Speaking at a campaign event, according to the same report, he said the conflict would have a good ending, placing it either shortly after the American elections or before them. The Ynet account does not identify who in Tehran conveyed the message, and carries no Iranian confirmation.

In a further post on the planned meeting, Barak Ravid of Axios wrote in Hebrew that the session with Gulf leaders is expected to cover both the next steps in the war and Trump's plan for the period after it, repeating that a source familiar with the arrangements said Netanyahu is interested in a meeting with Trump but that none has been set.

Ynet also placed in the same report the American decision barring the Palestinian Authority chairman from travelling to New York, saying he would again address the assembly by video. The report does not connect that decision to the Gulf meeting, and the White House has still not commented publicly on the meeting itself.

The story as first reported

US President Donald Trump is expected to meet leaders of Gulf states on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York next Tuesday, in a session devoted to the next stage of the war with Iran. The report came from Barak Ravid of the American news site Axios, who described the planned meeting as a scoop and said it would address the steps that follow in the conflict.

Israeli outlets picked up the report within minutes. The Times of Israel, citing Axios and its unnamed sources, reported that the discussion is expected to centre on American ideas for a postwar strategy. The Hebrew-language channel of N12, the news division of Israel's Channel 12, relayed Ravid's reporting that three people familiar with the details described the plan, and that Trump and his senior team are working on a "day after" framework expected to be finalised after the US congressional midterm elections. The Jerusalem Post also carried the report.

What the UN General Assembly week means

The General Assembly is the annual gathering of all UN member states at the organisation's headquarters in New York. Its high-level opening week draws heads of state and government to the same few blocks of Manhattan, which makes it the densest diplomatic calendar of the year. Much of the substantive business happens not in the assembly hall but in bilateral and small-group meetings arranged on the sidelines, where leaders who would otherwise need separate state visits can be brought into one room.

That pattern is what makes the reported Gulf meeting notable rather than routine. Axios noted that during the previous year's General Assembly, Trump met leaders from eight Arab and Muslim countries and put before them a draft of his Gaza peace plan, publishing it publicly a week later, with an agreement to end that war reached soon after. The precedent is being cited as a template: a closed-door presentation to regional partners first, a public rollout second.

Who the Gulf states are

The Gulf states are the Arab monarchies along the Persian Gulf, a grouping that includes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman. They sit directly across the water from Iran, host American military facilities, and have in recent years pursued their own channels to Tehran alongside their security relationships with Washington. Any regional arrangement following a war with Iran would depend heavily on their financial weight and on their willingness to underwrite or police it. The reports do not name which leaders are expected to attend the New York meeting.

The Israeli angle

According to the Ravid reporting relayed by N12, a person familiar with the arrangements said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also interested in meeting Trump, but no such meeting had been scheduled at the time of the report. Israel is not described in any of the reports as a participant in the Gulf leaders' session.

The Times of Israel's liveblog placed the item alongside other developments from the same day, including a White House comment on Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz over Gaza, and a US statement that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his delegation were barred from the General Assembly for violating American law. Those are separate matters and the reports do not link them to the Gulf meeting.

What is a "day after" plan

The phrase, used in Hebrew as hayom she'acharei, has become standard shorthand in Israeli and American policy discussion for the governance, security and reconstruction arrangements that apply once fighting stops. It was applied extensively to Gaza and is now, according to the reporting, being applied to the regional picture after the war with Iran. N12's relay of Ravid's account says the American framework is not yet final and is expected to be settled after the midterm vote in the United States.

What the reports do not say

None of the material identifies the Gulf leaders expected to attend, gives a time or venue for the meeting, or sets out any element of the American postwar ideas beyond calling them ideas for a regional strategy. There is no confirmation from the White House, from any Gulf government, or from the Israeli Prime Minister's Office in the reports available; the entire account rests on Axios and on unnamed people described as familiar with the details, with the Israeli outlets attributing to that reporting rather than to their own sourcing. The reports also do not describe the current state of the war with Iran, do not say whether a ceasefire or negotiation track exists, and do not indicate whether the plan will be presented publicly as the Gaza plan was. Nothing in the material confirms the meeting will take place as described.