Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian used a rare wartime address to the United Nations General Assembly to reject US threats. He also said Tehran remains open to negotiations, provided they are not conducted under duress.
The speech on Wednesday came a day after Donald Trump told the same gathering that he faces a choice between a deal with Iran or to “annihilate the Islamic Republic.” Iran and the United States have been at war for nearly seven months.
Pezeshkian, seen as a moderate in Iran’s political landscape, was defiant in his address. Holding up large photographs of the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and of more than 150 Iranian schoolchildren killed in the first days of the war, he answered Trump’s description of Iranians as terrorists. “We have been the victims of terrorism,” he said. “We are not terrorists.”
Near the end of his speech he addressed Trump by name. “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,” he said.
He added that Iranian resistance would only grow under sanctions and pressure, and that threats against Iran run counter to the spirit of the UN Charter. The US representative reportedly walked out during the address.
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Meanwhile Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held indirect talks on Tuesday with Iranian officials, including Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, on the summit’s sidelines.
Trump called it “a very good meeting” but said the Iranians were “not the highest level.” Iran’s Foreign Ministry put the meeting at about two hours, against Trump’s three.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Iran has set out conditions for reviving diplomacy, which include an end to US hostilities and to the US naval blockade of Iranian ports, and the release of Iranian funds. He said messages were being exchanged through Qatar as mediator.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who spoke right after Pezeshkian, called the indirect talks significant, and dismissed the Iranian leader’s speech as hypocritical.
US Ambassador Mike Waltz said Washington is “internalizing” what Iran brought to the table, while Trump has said he expects a deal soon after the November 3 midterm elections.
