Can This Week’s U.N. Gathering Cool Rising Tensions Between the U.S. and Iran?

Vaez says, however, that any effort to revive peace talks between the two countries during the event will largely rely on mediation by Gulf states. 

Trump is set to hold talks with leaders from the Gulf Cooperation Council—a regional alliance including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain—on the sidelines of the gathering in the coming days. Sources with knowledge of the anticipated meeting told Axios, which first reported the news, that discussions are expected to concern next steps in the war with Iran, with a focus on U.S. ideas for a strategy after the conflict concludes.

Vaez believes that the Qataris could play a leading role in mediation efforts, with the support of countries such as Saudi Arabia, Oman, Turkey, Pakistan, and Egypt. 

“It all depends on whether the mediating countries would be able to find a mutually acceptable formula,” he says of the possibility of the U.S. and Iran coming to some kind of agreement. “Because at this moment, both sides are in a zero-sum situation in which there is literally no overlap between what the Iranians demand and what the U.S. is seeking to achieve.”