America just threw Iran's negotiators out of New York and talks have collapsed

The US just shut down the one channel trying to end its war with Iran.

Here's what happened. Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, ordered Iran's negotiating delegation to leave the country immediately.

The order came two days ago, in the evening, after talks between the US and Iran stalled.

Abbas Araghchi, Iran's Foreign Minister, was among those ordered out. He was Rubio's negotiating partner in the talks.

The delegation left for the airport a few hours after the order. Their flight left New York for Doha in the early hours of the following morning.

So why does this matter? Because this wasn't just any meeting.

The talks were happening on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly's 81st session in New York. Qatar was mediating. Trying to find a compromise between two countries at war.

And Qatar wasn't getting anywhere. Neither side would budge.

A US official told Axios why Rubio gave the order. Quote "the UN General Assembly was over, so it was time for them to go."

That's the line Washington is giving. Just tidying up after the session ended.

But look at the timing. That tells a different story.

Earlier that day, the White House still thought talks might go somewhere. By the afternoon, it was clear. Deadlocked.

That evening, Rubio gave the order. Hope to hostility within hours.

Here's the twist though. A second source told Axios that Araghchi was already booked to fly back to Tehran that same night anyway.

So the delegation was leaving regardless. What matters isn't that they left.

It's that the US pushed them out first, before they could leave on their own terms.

Now, what were they actually arguing about? Sequencing.

Iran had proposed a seven-day ceasefire, paired with slowly reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian officials and state media say the US sent back a counterproposal, and Tehran is still looking at it.

The fight is simply over who moves first.

And Donald Trump has already made his own view clear. The Wall Street Journal reports, citing US officials, that he has rejected Iran's seven-day ceasefire offer outright.

He's told aides he expects to start bombing Iran again after the November midterm elections.

But those same officials say he isn't eager to restart a full war right now. The midterms could still change his mind.

A few hours ago, a reporter asked Trump how he'd actually get a deal done with Iran.

He said, quote "we will blow 'em up or make a deal."

So that's the US president putting a bombing campaign and a peace deal in the same breath. As if either one solves it.

And Iran isn't backing down either.

Hossein Mohebbi, who speaks for Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, says the war only ends one way. Washington has to give up. US forces have to leave the region.

Abbas Araghchi has said Iran will not give up its sovereign rights despite pressure and threats.

Here's what's keeping this from being completely over. Qatari mediators are still talking to both sides about their compromise plan.

So the channel isn't fully dead. But the venue that hosted a week of talks, the UN General Assembly, has wrapped up. And the men doing the negotiating have flown home.

So what don't we know?

Whether Iran tries to restart talks through Qatar. Or whether both sides now just expect the war to restart instead.

We also don't know if Trump sees this expulsion as the end of negotiating, or just pressure for Iran to offer more. Iran hasn't said anything publicly about being expelled.

This war between the US, Israel and Iran started seven months ago. Right now, the clearest line on where things stand came from Trump himself.

It ends very soon. One way or the other.