From hiding in bomb shelters to visiting New York, Iran’s leaders seize the opportunity

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Seven months after escaping with his life from a US-coordinated Israeli airstrike that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s top diplomat walked the streets of Manhattan this week under the protection of the US Secret Service.

As leaders gathered in New York for the UN General Assembly, Abbas Araghchi and Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, have seized the opportunity to make their case to the world, casting the Islamic Republic as a country abiding by international law against “bullies” who are not.

Araghchi met with more than two dozen diplomats, including counterparts from more than ten European countries and even Jordan’s foreign minister, whose country Iran had attacked. More importantly, he held a rare direct meeting with US envoy Steve Witkoff and told western media that Iran had put a new offer on the table.

In his address to the UN gathering, Pezeshkian said the Islamic Republic would never “bow down” – a line that landed well with hardliners at home, some of whom had opposed the trip at a time when war-time sanctions and a US naval blockade are choking Iran’s economy.

On Thursday, Pezeshkian sat with Western journalists and think-tank analysts at a New York hotel to lay out his government’s thinking – a far cry from the morning of February 28, when he was feared dead after vanishing for hours amid waves of US-Israeli strikes.

In previous decades, Iran’s turns at the United Nations General Assembly have garnered attention, but under the shadow of war, this year’s visit became the main event. Tehran’s officials planned the visit strategically , mindful of both global and domestic attention.

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Hardliners in Iran initially criticized Pezeshkian and Araghchi’s diplomatic overtures to Washington, deeming a decision to visit the country actively waging war against them as a sign of surrender. Araghchi, in particular, came under fire from Iran’s conservative lawmakers for meeting Witkoff.

“Foreign policy and national security are not arenas for recklessness,” a hardline lawmaker, Ebrahim Rezaei, wrote on X Wednesday. “The foreign minister must explain on which authorization his meeting with the representative of the enemy was conducted?”

Yet, despite the high risk of a political misstep, Iranian officials staged a visit that played well at home, revived a diplomatic track with their adversary, declared a message of survival to the world and delivered their thinking to the American public.

Pezeshkian declared Iran’s demands from the UN podium and held bilateral meetings with his counterparts. By contrast, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who co-launched the war on Iran, was met with protests on the streets of New York and a mass walkout of UN delegates as he delivered his speech from the floor.

Araghchi’s meeting with Witkoff to restart talks was an attempt to break three months of diplomatic deadlock.

Still, US officials were quick to caution that an agreement would take time.

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“If there’s going to be a deal with Iran…it’s going to involve a lot of hard work over a period of time, and it will engage and involve mediators as well,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters this week.

Iran said it had presented a proposal to the US that would re-open the Strait of Hormuz - in return for Washington lifting its economic blockade of Iran - and restart the push towards a “final deal.”

Tehran’s fresh offer requires Washington to meet a set of conditions within seven days, Araghchi told reporters. He declined to elaborate on those conditions but said that they were “nothing more” than what was included in the Memorandum of Understanding - an ill-fated agreement signed between both parties in June that quickly collapsed.

Iranian State TV/Reuters

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While a swift reopening of the strait and a resumption of talks over Tehran’s nuclear program could be tempting to Trump, obstacles remain.

Iran’s conditions include the US waiving sanctions on oil sales, lifting the naval blockade and ending other economic penalties imposed after the breakdown of the agreement back in June, a regional source familiar with the talks told CNN.

In the new proposal, Iran wants Washington to take the first steps, an expert told CNN.

“The offer now is essentially the same bargain, but with a very different sequence,” Sina Toossi, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington, D.C told CNN. “The US takes concrete steps first, and only then does Iran ease its pressure over Hormuz.”

Under the June deal, which at the time was widely seen as favorable to Iran, the US agreed to lift a naval blockade, end sanctions on the regime, set up a $300 billion fund to reconstruct the country and accept the Islamic Republic’s role in managing a narrow waterway where a fifth of global oil crosses daily.

The agreement quickly collapsed after the Trump administration accused Tehran of firing on ships in the Hormuz. Iran, in turn, accused Washington of its own breaches by launching strikes on Iran and refusing to release cash frozen in banks abroad.

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“The central message from Pezeshkian’s New York trip is that Iran genuinely wants a deal,” Toossi added, “but it is no longer willing to strike a deal and de-escalate first and simply trust that Washington will follow through.”

Iran has also pursued a separate diplomatic track with Oman, the only other country that borders the Strait of Hormuz, on how to manage the waterway. Iran has in the past demanded future payment for managing the Strait, but it remains unclear if that demand is part of Tehran’s new offer. It’s also unclear if the new Iranian-Omani framework has been presented to the Trump administration. An attempt to bring neighboring Arab states on board failed last week.

One of the bigger lingering questions is whether Iran will accept a new negotiation that Washington could use to extract further concessions.

Both sides are currently locked in a showdown over who can live with the status quo the longest. Iran is advertising a high pain threshold while Trump insists that he will not be hurt in the upcoming midterm elections even as gas prices climb at the pump.

So, Tehran’s leaders might have had a good few days – but it is unclear how long the glow will last.

“They’re waiting to see how I do in the midterm election,” Trump said in his speech at the UN. “What they don’t realize is that I’m not running. I did that already and won in a landslide.”

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在从美国协调的以色列空袭中死里逃生七个月后，伊朗最高外交官本周在美国特勤局的保护下走上曼哈顿街头。那次空袭导致伊朗最高领袖阿亚图拉·阿里·哈梅内伊身亡。

在各国领导人齐聚纽约参加联合国大会之际，伊朗总统阿巴斯·阿拉格奇和马苏德·佩泽什基安抓住机会向世界阐述他们的立场，将伊朗伊斯兰共和国描绘成一个遵守国际法、反对不遵守国际法的“恶霸”的国家。

阿拉格奇会见了二十多位外交官，其中包括十多个欧洲国家的外交官，甚至还有曾遭到伊朗袭击的约旦外长。更重要的是，他罕见地与美国特使史蒂夫·威特科夫举行了直接会晤，并告诉西方媒体，伊朗已提出新的方案。

佩泽什基安在联合国大会上发表讲话时表示，伊朗伊斯兰共和国永远不会“屈服”——这番言论在国内强硬派中引起了共鸣，其中一些人曾反对此次访问，因为战争时期的制裁和美国的海上封锁正在扼杀伊朗的经济。

周四，佩泽什基安在纽约一家酒店与西方记者和智库分析人士会面，阐述了他的政府的想法——这与 2 月 28 日上午的情况截然不同，当时他在美国和以色列的一系列空袭中失踪数小时后，人们担心他已经死亡。

过去几十年，伊朗在联合国大会上的每次亮相都备受关注，但在战争的阴影下，今年的访问成为了焦点。德黑兰官员精心策划了此次访问，既考虑到了国际关注，也顾及了国内舆论。

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伊朗总统在纽约一家酒店向记者坚称，我们并非试图杀害特朗普。

伊朗强硬派最初批评佩泽什基安和阿拉格奇向华盛顿示好的外交举动，认为访问一个正在与他们交战的国家是投降的标志。阿拉格奇尤其因会见维特科夫而受到伊朗保守派议员的抨击。

“外交政策和国家安全绝非鲁莽行事的领域，”强硬派议员易卜拉欣·雷扎伊周三在X网站上写道。“外交部长必须解释，他与敌方代表会面的授权依据是什么？”

然而，尽管存在政治失误的高风险，伊朗官员还是进行了一次访问，这次访问在国内反响良好，恢复了与对手的外交渠道，向世界传递了生存的信息，并向美国公众传达了他们的想法。

佩泽什基安在联合国讲台上宣布了伊朗的要求，并与伊朗对口官员举行了双边会谈。相比之下，发动对伊朗战争的以色列总理内塔尼亚胡在纽约发表讲话时，却遭到了街头抗议和联合国代表的集体退场。

阿拉格奇与维特科夫会面重启谈判，意在打破三个月的外交僵局。

不过，美国官员很快也提醒说，达成协议需要时间。

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“如果要与伊朗达成协议……那将需要一段时间的艰苦努力，而且还需要调解人的参与，”国务卿马可·卢比奥本周告诉记者。

伊朗表示，已向美国提出一项提议，以重新开放霍尔木兹海峡为条件，换取华盛顿解除对伊朗的经济封锁，并重启达成“最终协议”的进程。

阿拉格奇告诉记者，德黑兰提出的新方案要求华盛顿在七天内满足一系列条件。他拒绝详细说明这些条件，但表示这些条件“与”双方六月份签署的谅解备忘录中的内容“并无二致”——这份不幸的协议很快就破裂了。

伊朗国家电视台/路透社

消息人士称，来自中国情报机构的情报帮助伊朗越来越有效地袭击美国目标。

虽然迅速重新开放海峡并恢复关于德黑兰核计划的谈判对特朗普来说可能很有诱惑力，但障碍依然存在。

一位熟悉谈判情况的地区消息人士告诉 CNN，伊朗的条件包括美国放弃对石油销售的制裁、解除海上封锁以及结束在 6 月份协议破裂后实施的其他经济制裁。

一位专家告诉美国有线电视新闻网（CNN），伊朗在新提议中希望华盛顿率先采取行动。

“现在的提议本质上还是同样的交易，但顺序完全不同，”华盛顿特区国际政策中心高级研究员西纳·图西告诉CNN。“美国首先采取具体措施，伊朗才会放松对霍尔木兹海峡的压力。”

根据当时被广泛认为对伊朗有利的 6 月份达成的协议，美国同意解除海上封锁，结束对伊朗政权的制裁，设立 3000 亿美元的基金用于重建伊朗，并接受伊朗伊斯兰共和国在管理一条狭窄水道方面所扮演的角色，这条水道每天承载着全球五分之一的石油运输。

在特朗普政府指责德黑兰向霍尔木兹海峡的船只开火后，该协议迅速破裂。伊朗则反过来指责华盛顿违反协议，对伊朗发动袭击并拒绝解冻冻结在海外银行的现金。

伊朗外交部/阿纳多卢通讯社/盖蒂图片社

图西补充说：“佩泽什基安此次纽约之行的核心信息是，伊朗真心希望达成协议，但它不再愿意先达成协议、缓和局势，然后仅仅寄希望于华盛顿会履行承诺。”

伊朗还与霍尔木兹海峡的另一个邻国阿曼就如何管理该水道展开了单独的外交磋商。伊朗过去曾要求阿曼未来支付海峡管理费用，但目前尚不清楚这一要求是否包含在德黑兰的新提议中。此外，伊朗和阿曼的新框架是否已提交给特朗普政府也尚不清楚。上周，伊朗试图争取邻近阿拉伯国家加入该框架的努力以失败告终。

一个较大的悬而未决的问题是，伊朗是否会接受华盛顿可能利用此次谈判来获取更多让步的新谈判。

双方目前陷入僵局，争论谁能最长时间地维持现状。伊朗标榜自己忍耐力极强，而特朗普则坚称，即便油价飙升，他也不会在即将到来的中期选举中受到任何影响。

所以，德黑兰的领导人可能度过了美好的几天——但这种好运能持续多久还不得而知。

“他们都在等着看我在中期选举中表现如何，”特朗普在联合国演讲中说。“他们没意识到的是，我根本不参选。我已经赢了，而且赢得压倒性胜利。”