Regional Round-up from Drop Site News
Iran is pushing a seven-day roadmap to end the war with the U.S., as Iranian officials held meetings with Qatari and Pakistani mediators on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. The plan, which Tehran said was transmitted via mediators, calls for an end to hostilities on all fronts, including Gaza and Lebanon, the release of at least $12 billion in frozen Iranian assets, sanctions waivers for Iranian oil, an end to the U.S. naval blockade, and immediate nuclear talks. Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz on the seventh day.
The proposal seeks to revive key provisions of the June U.S.-Iran Memorandum of Understanding, which later collapsed amid mutual accusations of violations. A White House official told CNN that discussions through mediators were “positive and constructive,” while another U.S. official told the New York Times that Washington would not rush into an agreement. [As we went to press, Trump had rejected the Iranian proposal and continued to threaten to “annihilate” Iran.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran remains willing to reach an agreement with Washington and would accept international verification of its nuclear program and lower uranium enrichment levels, in an interview with Fox News. Asked whether Iran wants a nuclear bomb, Pezeshkian said, “Not at all,” citing the late Supreme Leader’s religious prohibition on weapons of mass destruction. “We are willing to dilute [enriched uranium] … We are willing to submit ourselves to verification,” he added.
“If the current American government, within international legal frameworks, wishes to reach an agreement, fine,” he said, adding that Tehran would not tie diplomacy to the timing of U.S. elections.
The United Arab Eirates suspended all flights operated by Iranian airlines, citing new U.S. sanctions threatening airports and aviation companies that continue servicing Iranian carriers. Iraq, Oman, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkmenistan have also imposed restrictions.
Iran warned neighboring countries against enforcing the measures. Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei urged them not to join what he called the U.S. “adventure.” “Flights in the region are either open to everyone or to no one,” Supreme Leader adviser Mohammad Mokhber wrote in a post on X. “If Iran is denied the ability to fly and receive airport services, no country in the region will have access to these facilities either.”
The military chiefs of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan met to discuss support for Saudi Arabia under the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, following attacks by Yemen’s Ansarallah on Saudi cities and energy infrastructure. The countries signed an agreement on August 7, stipulating that an armed attack against one would be considered an attack against all three. They have since begun establishing mechanisms to implement the pact, including a Saudi-based secretariat and expanded military cooperation.
Pakistan said earlier this month that no military response to the Ansarallah attacks was then under discussion, while stressing it would fulfill its obligations if required. Meanwhile, France will deploy soldiers, radar, and defense systems to Saudi Arabia to protect the Red Sea oil export hub of Yanbu following an Ansarallah attack, French President Emmanuel Macron said, according to Le Monde. Macron said the deployment was intended to protect the site, not involve French forces in the fighting.
Yanbu, which handles several million barrels of oil a day, was “severely damaged” in the attacks, he said.
An Israeli airstrike targeted a vehicle in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis, killing one Palestinian and wounding several others, according to WAFA. Israeli settlers assaulted and detained a group of Palestinian young men from Nablus after stopping their vehicle in Beita’s Al-Arma area. Israeli forces separately raided Beita and detained a 17-year-old Palestinian boy from his home. In Ramallah, Israeli settlers set fire to three Palestinian vehicles and spray-painted racist slogans on several homes. There are now 942 Israeli checkpoints, gates, and other obstacles across the occupied West Bank, including 824 fixed closure points, increasingly restricting Palestinian movement, the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission reported. Thirteen new fixed gates and checkpoints were documented over the past two months, including 10 in Jenin. Israeli police shot and killed a Palestinian man in his 30s in Yafa Al-Naseriyye, in northern Israel, Thursday night, bringing the documented number of Palestinians killed by police inside of Israel this year to 10. Israel also launched airstrikes, shelling and incursions across southern Lebanon despite a ceasefire.
The UNRWA is facing a $100 million cashflow deficit, forcing it to cut service hours by 20% and reduce salaries for local staff. The U.S., historically UNRWA’s largest donor, has withheld funding since 2024. Israel has moved to dismantle the agency’s operations in occupied East Jerusalem and restrict its work across the occupied Palestinian territory. In 2026, Israeli authorities demolished UNRWA’s historic East Jerusalem headquarters, carried out an operation at its Kalandia vocational training center and forced the closure of its Old City health clinic. Nearly 400 UNRWA personnel have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 2023.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in prerecorded remarks after the U.S. denied visas to a Palestinian delegation for the second consecutive year, told the UN General Assembly that Israeli policies now threaten Palestinians’ “very life and existence,” citing “killing, destruction, starvation, attempts at displacement, as well as a genocidal war that has created an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.”
Abbas called Israeli activity in the West Bank a “malicious colonial plan” and urged the international community to implement a two-state solution based on international law. He also discussed the Palestinian Authority’s plans to hold legislative elections on Nov. 28—the first since 2005-2006.
World leaders walked out when accused war criminal Bibi Netanyahu addressed the UN. Netanyahu excoriated NY Mayor Zohran Mamdani and world leaders at the UN amid Israel’s growing isolation. He told “any other moral cowards who haven’t yet left this hall” to leave. Netanyahu also rejected French President Emmanuel Macron’s condemnation of daily Israeli “violations” in the West Bank as a “grotesque absurdity”. Nearly two dozen protesters, including Democratic nominee for Congress Darializa Avila Chevalier, whistleblower Chelsea Manning, and actor Hannah Einbinder were arrested blocking the street in a protest outside the UN.
