Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered Iran's United Nations delegation — including President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi — to leave the United States this week after talks aimed at ending the two countries' war broke down, according to U.S. officials. Rubio's team told the Iranians they had “over extended” their stay following a stalled round of negotiations over the weekend.
Why it matters: The public rupture is one of the most visible breakdowns yet in on-and-off efforts to formally end a conflict that opened with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February and has simmered through a shaky April ceasefire ever since. It also lands as President Trump has stopped ruling out a return to military action once November's midterm elections are over.
Driving the news:
Pezeshkian and Araghchi traveled to New York last week for the UN General Assembly and held talks with U.S. officials aimed at ending the war, before Rubio ordered the delegation to leave the country, according to Washington Examiner.
The order came after negotiations stalled over the weekend — one of the most public breaks yet in the on-and-off efforts to end the conflict, per Fox News.
The delegation's departure came earlier than the schedule it had been operating under for the UN session, prompting dueling accounts of whether it was an expulsion or a routine exit.
What they're saying: Rubio's team told the Iranian delegation it had overstayed its welcome after the collapsed talks, according to Fox News's live coverage of the standoff.
The other side: Iran's UN delegation disputed the U.S. characterization, saying in a statement that it left New York “in accordance with the schedule” it had already provided to the State Department — not because it was forced out.
By the numbers:
The bottom line: Even a dispute over the choreography of a diplomatic exit underscores how fragile the latest attempt at ending the war actually was — and raises the stakes for whether Washington and Tehran find their way back to the table before Trump's midterm-season warnings about renewed strikes become more than rhetoric.
Go deeper: