- Iranian President Pezeshkian delivered a defiant UN speech, vowing Iran will never 'bend at the knee' to external pressure.
- He accused Washington of 'terrorism' for assassinating former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and said Iran did not start the war.
- Trump told the UN he may 'annihilate' Iran while praising renewed negotiator talks; Pezeshkian made no mention of those talks.
- Tehran has choked off the Strait of Hormuz, spiking global energy prices, and refuses to let the waterway be used as leverage.
- Pezeshkian's UN attendance was uncertain but the US issued a visa while denying visas to several entourage members.
Iran’s president struck a defiant tone at the UN on Wednesday, where he spoke for the first time since Washington and Israel launched an all-out war on his country, vowing Tehran would never “bend at the knee.”
Masoud Pezeshkian accused Washington of “terrorism” for assassinating former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the start of the war.
He held up a photograph of the dead leader, before insisting Tehran had never started a war.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump had told the UN he was weighing whether to “annihilate” Iran, but went on to hail renewed talks between Tehran and Washington’s negotiators.
Pezeshkian made no reference to the talks to resolve the stalled war in his steely speech.
“(Trump) must know that the resistance of the Iranian people will only increase in the face of sanctions, increased pressure, increased bullying. We will never bow our head or bend at the knee,” he said.
Pezeshkian insisted that Tehran would not allow the Strait of Hormuz, which it has been intermittently blockaded since the start of the war, causing global energy prices to spike, to be used for aggression against his country.
“We cannot let some have free access and bolster their interests from the waterway, while at the same time using that waterway to impose their aggression upon us,” he said.
Soaring fuel prices threaten to cost Trump’s Republicans their control of Congress in November’s midterms.
Pezeshkian’s attendance at the UN’s signature diplomatic event, in the heart of Manhattan, had been in doubt as it was unclear if the United States would issue a visa.
Ultimately, Washington granted the permit, but denied visas to several members of Pezeshkian’s entourage.
We have been ‘victims of terrorism’
Iran’s president said that his people have been “victims of terrorism” by the United States. He held up large photos of the late Ali Khamenei and the more than 150 Iranian school children killed on the first days of the war.
“We have only defended ourselves. We are not terrorists,” Pezeshkian said at the General Assembly. “Our innocent people have been the targets of cowardly attacks and aggressions imposed upon our country. And we defended ourselves with utmost strength. America and Israel attacked us.”
Hormuz cannot be used for ‘aggression’
Pezeshkian said at the UN on Wednesday that Tehran would not allow the Strait of Hormuz to be used for aggression against his country.
“We cannot let some have free access and bolster their interests from the waterway, while at the same time using that waterway to impose their aggression upon us,” he said.
