Pezeshkian Lands in New York for UN Speech as Iran's Guard Threatens to 'Change the Geography of War'

Since U.S. and Israeli strikes touched off the war in late February, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has now made the first trip by a senior Iranian official to U.S. soil since it began, departing Tehran on Tuesday for New York ahead of a Wednesday address to the UN General Assembly.

"We emerged with our heads held high, and this is a source of dignity and pride for all of us," Pezeshkian said before boarding his flight, according to video broadcast by Iranian state television and reported by CBS News. "We will firmly tell our adversaries that, despite all the unfairness and injustices, the Iranian people have stood their ground."

The State Department approved visas for part of Iran's delegation but is restricting their movement in the U.S., CBS News reported. Iran's communications staff were denied visas outright. President Trump said Sunday he'd "probably" meet Pezeshkian on the sidelines in New York, but as of Tuesday neither government has confirmed any such meeting.

Saudi alert, then stand-down

Early Tuesday, Saudi Arabia's civil defense agency issued a warning through its National Early Warning Platform for Najran province, on the Yemeni border, telling residents to stay indoors and away from open areas. CBS News, citing AFP, reported the alert was lifted a short time later. It was the first such warning since Houthi rebels struck Riyadh over the weekend.

A tanker also took a hit entering the Strait of Hormuz on Monday. The UK Maritime Trade Operations Centre said an "unknown projectile" struck the vessel, injuring two crew members, according to Business Standard. The ship was reportedly continuing under its own power with no reported environmental damage. Tanker traffic through Hormuz has resumed at a fraction of pre-war volume.

Britain steps in to help the Saudis

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday the UK will provide the Royal Air Force for air-to-air refueling of Saudi aircraft fighting the Houthis, an arrangement he described as lasting "a matter of weeks" but subject to review, according to both CBS News and Business Standard. The refueling support does not include combat operations, but it puts Britain directly into the Saudi-Houthi fight for the first time in this round of the conflict.

The Houthis, who Business Standard notes act independently of Iranian orders even as Tehran benefits from the pressure they put on Riyadh, have seized the port of Mokha and Red Sea islands this month and declared a blockade of Saudi shipping in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi used a speech aired Monday on al-Masirah to demand an end to Saudi "aggression" and the decade-old blockade of Yemen, framing his group's fight as a defense of "legitimate rights."

Iran's Guard: hit us and we'll surprise you

IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohebbi escalated Tehran's rhetoric Monday, telling Iranian state media that any new U.S. attack would trigger a fundamentally different Iranian response. "We will certainly change the geography of the war," Mohebbi said. "We will bring new weapons with new capabilities into the battlefield, and the world will be astonished."

Mohebbi said Iran has "new targets that have not yet been struck" and that the Guard has prepared for a "long-term war." He also claimed U.S. and allied forces have failed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz despite deploying "the largest navy in the world." This claim cuts directly against President Trump's remarks to Fox News on Thursday, Sept. 17, that Iran's navy and air force have been "decimated," with 159 vessels sunk and "not one ship going to Iran" getting past the U.S. blockade. Neither side's numbers have been independently verified.

Trump, in that same interview, said he was weighing three paths: "wiping Iran out, letting them rot economically, or making a deal." Vice President JD Vance has defended staying engaged rather than pulling back, warning at the All-In Summit that a U.S. withdrawal from the region "would mean necessarily a worldwide energy crisis" so long as Iran keeps firing on shipping. That's the strongest case administration officials have made for continued military pressure: that walking away now, mid-blockade, would hand Iran control over global oil flows rather than end the conflict.

Iran's counter-argument, made through Mohebbi and Pezeshkian both, is that the U.S. campaign has already failed on its own terms, that Hormuz remains effectively closed to unauthorized traffic, and that further escalation will cost Washington and its allies more than it costs Tehran. Neither claim has been verified by an independent party; both are asserted by interested sides in an active war.

Pezeshkian is scheduled to speak Wednesday at UN headquarters, where diplomats will be watching for any signal of a Trump-Pezeshkian encounter that neither government has yet confirmed will happen.