President Donald Trump rejected an Iranian proposal that Tehran said could have reopened the Strait of Hormuz within a week if the United States met conditions attached to it. Trump told reporters outside the White House that Iran wanted a deal because it was losing badly under the American naval blockade, and that the offer was not acceptable. Iran's president left New York after the United Nations General Assembly meetings, which included indirect contacts with Washington. Saudi Arabia said it intercepted another missile it blamed on Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen. Oil has traded near $100 a barrel during the standoff, and ship traffic through the waterway stays restricted.
President Donald Trump addressed the 81st UN General Assembly in New York this week, with the seven-month war with Iran, energy security and Gaza at the centre of his message. Delegates walked out of the chamber during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech a day earlier. Washington is pressing for shipping to flow freely again through the Strait of Hormuz, where attacks on tankers have cut oil traffic since late February. Trump also said he wants to keep talking with Russia and Ukraine about an energy truce. He met Japan's prime minister and is hosting China's Xi Jinping at the White House in a crowded diplomatic week.
Dozens of delegates left the General Assembly hall on 24 September as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began his address, the sharpest public protest of a week in which world leaders criticised Israel's conduct of the war in Gaza. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas spoke to the same hall earlier in the day. The speeches put Washington's stalled 20-point plan for Gaza at the centre of the 81st session, days after President Donald Trump praised the Security Council for approving it and creating a Board of Peace. On the sidelines, US envoy Steve Witkoff held at least two hours of talks with Iran's foreign minister.
British prosecutors have charged a 65-year-old doctor living in north London with crimes tied to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, the first such case brought in the United Kingdom. Dr Vincent Brown, formerly known as Vincent Bajinya, was arrested in London and appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 22 September. He faces one count of conduct ancillary to genocide and six counts of conduct ancillary to murder as a crime against humanity, and prosecutors say he oversaw six killings. He entered no plea. Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring granted bail on a 25,000 pound security paid by his family and sent the case to the Old Bailey, where Brown is due on 9 October. Prosecutors said they want to challenge the bail decision. UK law allows British courts to try genocide and crimes against humanity wherever they were committed.
The 81st UN General Assembly opened its general debate in New York on September 22, with President Donald Trump using his address to defend the war with Iran and call for the country's complete economic isolation until it stops supporting armed groups. He said the United States Navy has escorted more than a billion barrels of oil out of the Strait of Hormuz, and he praised a Security Council resolution condemning attacks on commercial shipping. Trump also criticised what he called the UN's globalist agenda, opposed the International Criminal Court and global taxation, and said he wants artificial intelligence rebranded as superintelligence. The Cuban delegation walked out after he described Cuba as a failed state. Gaza, Ukraine and climate finance are also on the week's agenda.
Yemen's Houthi movement said it struck the Saudi capital on September 19 and a Saudi Aramco site in the Red Sea port of Yanbu, after seizing the port city of Mokha and two islands near the Bab al-Mandab strait earlier in the month. With the Strait of Hormuz closed during the US war with Iran, Bab al-Mandab is the main route left for Gulf oil and cargo. About 30 tankers have been reported within Houthi strike range near Yanbu and several vessels have reversed course. Carriers are sailing around southern Africa, lifting freight and insurance costs, while S&P Global Energy says Middle East crude output is unlikely to return to prewar levels before the end of 2027.
Ukraine sent a record wave of drones toward Moscow on the last day of Russia's parliamentary election, and Russian officials said at least two people were killed. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said more than 1,600 drones were shot down across Russia from Saturday onward and that about 450 of them were heading for the capital. Several drones reached the Moscow Refinery and one struck a residential building, he said. Ukraine's president published video of the refinery burning. The attack came as polls closed in a three-day vote that offered online prizes, empty podiums and no opposition candidates. Poland said Russian drones crossed its airspace and promised a serious response.
Houthi forces have moved onto Perim island at the Bab al-Mandab strait, witnesses say, a day after seizing the Red Sea port city of Mokha. The island sits at the narrowest point of the waterway linking Asia and Europe, which matters more than usual because the Strait of Hormuz is effectively closed. A Houthi spokesman said navigation is safe for all shipping companies except Saudi vessels. Fighting in south-west Yemen has displaced at least 46,000 people and pushed oil prices higher. Saudi Arabia relies on the Red Sea to ship crude to Asian buyers, so any disruption at Bab al-Mandab raises freight and insurance costs for cargo owners and adds to fuel bills for importers in Europe and Asia.
Voting in Russia's parliamentary election opened on Friday and runs through Sunday, with all 450 State Duma seats at stake. More than 111 million people are eligible to vote, and it is the first Duma election since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. United Russia, the party backing President Vladimir Putin, is expected to keep its large majority after winning 49.8% of the vote and 324 seats in 2021. Because the result is not in doubt, analysts say turnout, the size of the protest vote and reports of pressure on voters will matter more than party totals. The Central Election Commission allowed the anti-war party Yabloko to compete, a decision made in July when polling put its support near 3%.
President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he hoped the war against Iran was close to ending, in the clearest signal yet that Washington wants to wind down a conflict now in its seventh month. The comments came as Saudi Arabia and the Houthi movement traded long-range attacks across the Arabian Peninsula. A Houthi spokesman said Saudi aircraft carried out as many as 450 air strikes on Yemen this week, while the group fired drones and missiles at the Saudi Red Sea oil port of Yanbu and an airbase at Khamis Mushait. Trump is expected to meet leaders of six Gulf states as Washington tries to turn military pressure into a ceasefire. Oil prices have climbed during the fighting.