Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders has rebuked Donald Trump’s threat to annihilate Iran.

“No, Mr. President. We should not ‘annihilate’ the people of Iran.

“That is a war crime. That is barbarism. And it is something the United States must never be associated with”, Sanders wrote on social media.

The senator was referring to comments the US president made during his speech to the United Nations Tuesday.

“I have a big decision to make. Will a deal be made with Iran that let’s them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before”, Trump said in his speech.

“Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic, and do it quickly — Never giving them the chance to destroy people and countries again?” he said. “Do I drive them into hell with no chance of surivial and no hope of future greatness?”

Iran has restored about 50 per cent of the production capacity at the South Pars gas field after it was damaged in an Israeli attack, deputy oil minister Ahmad Zeraatkar said according to the semi-official Fars news agency,

South Pars, which is the world’s largest natural gas field, is operated jointly by Iran and Qatar and was attacked on 18 March, just weeks after the US-Israeli war began on 28 February.

Zeraatkar added that all planned restoration work would be completed before winter.

He said in late August that about 40 per cent of the damaged capacity had been returned to production.

The change occurred following the death of a female Army officer who suffered a fatal medical emergency on Friday while traveling to the Middle East.

Oil prices fell further this morning after Saudi Arabia resumed crude flows through a key pipeline to the Red Sea and hopes of a diplomatic breakthrough between the US and Iran eased fears of a prolonged supply disruption.

Brent crude was trading at $98.77 (£78) a barrel, down 0.48 per cent, having already fallen below $100 on yesterday for the first time since 8 September. US West Texas Intermediate crude was last quoted around $90 (£71) a barrel after falling yesterday.

Saudi Arabia restarted its East-West pipeline yesterday, having shut the route following drone attacks earlier this month. The pipeline connects oil-producing areas in the east of the kingdom with the Red Sea port of Yanbu, giving Saudi Arabia an alternative export route that does not rely entirely on the Strait of Hormuz.

The kingdom has been using the pipeline to reroute around 4 million barrels of crude a day, equivalent to roughly 4 per cent of global oil supply. The pipeline resumed at a reduced rate, however, after three pumping stations were damaged in the attacks, and sources told Reuters that restoring the system to full capacity could take several weeks.

US president Donald Trump said his envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, had held productive talks with Iranian mediators aimed at ending the conflict, adding there was “a lot of momentum” towards a possible deal, even as he continued to warn Iran of further military action.

Donald Trump said US and Iranian officials met yesterday, hours after he threatened in his address to the UN General Assembly that he may “annihilate” the Islamic Republic if a deal isn’t reached soon to end the nearly seven-month war.

He told reporters that his chief envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, met for about three hours with Iranian officials on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders, but he offered few details about how the discussions transpired or the substance of the exchange.

“It was a very good meeting,” Mr Trump said. The president later added that the Iranian officials were “not the highest level, but it’s something.”

Mr Witkoff said in a posting on X that the talks were conducted through mediators who shuttled between the US and Iranian teams. He added that he was hopeful the effort “will prove constructive and promising.”

US Vice President JD Vance has said people are “very excited” about his administration’s handling of the Iran war, despite Republican candidates in the midterm election breaking with Donald Trump over the issue.

A reporter asked Vance for a response “about a growing number of Republicans in battleground states, calling for an end to the Iran war”.

“I haven’t seen what you’re talking about”, Vance said during a press conference Tuesday. “What I’ve seen is people who are very excited about what we’ve done. And, frankly, who don’t want to give control of Washington, D.C., over to the far-left Democrats”.

US senator Bernie Sanders has said that annihilating the population of Iran, as threatened by president Donald Trump, would amount to a war crime and an act of barbarism that the United States must never be associated with.

Writing on social media, Mr Sanders said: “No, Mr President. We should not ‘annihilate’ the people of Iran. That is a war crime. That is barbarism. And it is something the United States must never be associated with.”

Mr Sanders described the current conflict with Iran as “illegal and unconstitutional” and called on Congress to act immediately to bring it to an end.

That was surprising considering that just last week, before Speaker Mike Johnson dismissed the House of Representatives a day early, Hinson voted against a War Powers Act resolution to rein in Trump’s war. This came despite two of her Iowa Republican colleagues running for re-election — Reps. Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks — voting for the resolution.

All of this seems to show that Iowa, which has undergone a political transformation in the past 15 years to become a staunchly Republican state, is prime for a Democratic takeover.