💢 Trump's speech at the UN; the contradiction between diplomacy and the threat of destruction

💢 Trump's speech at the UN; the contradiction between diplomacy and the threat of destruction

Khashayar Junadi, BBC, Washington

At the UN General Assembly, Donald Trump presented Iran with a double choice: reach an agreement with Washington and rebuild the country or face the "rapid destruction" of the Islamic Republic. So he predicted that an agreement would probably be reached after the American elections.

Those words reflect Mr. Trump's usual style of "coercive diplomacy": keeping the road open to negotiations while threatening to use destructive force.

But his tone blurred the line between the threat to destroy the political system and the threat to Iran as a whole. The reference to leaving "no chance of survival" and "no hope for future generations" above the UN podium expresses a bitter irony.

The United Nations was established after World War II with the goal of saving future generations from war, but Mr. Trump spoke from his most important platform about denying a country hope for the future. However, this threat does not mean the end of diplomacy. In his speech, Mr. Trump effectively set the conditions for possible negotiations: Washington is still ready for an agreement, but the negotiations must be done under the shadow of an existential threat.