Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has rejected calls for surrender while insisting that Tehran remains open to diplomacy, telling the United Nations that his country would not accept negotiations conducted under threat of force.
The US delegation walked out as Mr Pezeshkian began his address to the 193-member General Assembly in New York.
“We will never bow our head or bend at the knee,” he said. “Iran must be understood by Mr Trump and those who seek to bully us that we are ready for dialogue and diplomacy and negotiations without accepting the language of force.”
His remarks came a day after Donald Trump used his own UN speech to defend the war with Iran, saying he had prevented the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon and warning that he could “annihilate the Islamic Republic” if no agreement was reached.
Mr Trump later said his chief envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, had held talks lasting about three hours with Iranian officials on the sidelines of the gathering. He gave few details but described the meeting as “very good”.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said Mr Trump was open to meeting Mr Pezeshkian while both men were in New York.
The Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas passed before the war, was a central focus of Mr Pezeshkian’s speech.
“It cannot be the case that everyone benefits from the Strait of Hormuz while we are denied access to shipping through this waterway,” he said. “The permanent deployment of hostile fleets and the expansion of the war will not lead to peace.”
Mr Pezeshkian accused the United States of targeting Iranians and said his people had been “victims of terrorism” by America. He condemned what he described as US attacks on civilian targets during the early stages of the conflict, including a girls’ school and a sports complex in the south of Iran.
Holding photographs of the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and more than 150 schoolchildren killed during the first days of the war, he said: “We have only defended ourselves. We are not terrorists.”
“Our innocent people have been the targets of cowardly attacks and aggressions imposed upon our country,” Mr Pezeshkian added. “And we defended ourselves with utmost strength. America and Israel attacked us.”
He concluded of the United States: “Yes they did hit us but we did not bend the knee.”
