Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian delivered a defiant address at the United Nations on Wednesday, his first public remarks since the United States and Israel launched an all-out war on his country, vowing that Tehran would never submit to American pressure.
Speaking in New York, Pezeshkian accused Washington of “terrorism” for the assassination of former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the outset of the conflict. He held up a photograph of the slain leader and insisted that Iran had never started a war.
The speech came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump told the UN he was weighing whether to “annihilate” Iran, while also welcoming renewed talks between American and Iranian negotiators. Pezeshkian made no mention of those discussions in his address.
“(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,” Pezeshkian declared.
He also warned that Iran would not allow the Strait of Hormuz—intermittently blockaded since the war began, driving up global energy prices—to be used against it. “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.
Pezeshkian’s presence at the UN gathering had been uncertain amid questions over a U.S. visa. Washington ultimately granted him entry but denied visas to several members of his entourage.
The ongoing disruption to oil flows through the strategic waterway has contributed to soaring fuel prices that threaten Republican control of Congress in November’s midterm elections.
