Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has rejected US President Donald Trump’s threat to “annihilate” the Islamic Republic, saying Tehran will not “bend the knee” but remains open to diplomacy to end the nearly seven-month war involving the US and Israel.
Addressing the UN General Assembly, Pezeshkian said Iran’s resistance would grow in response to sanctions and pressure.
“[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 the knee,” he said.
Pezeshkian also said Iran was prepared to negotiate, but would not accept demands made through force.
“We are ready for dialogue and diplomacy and negotiations without accepting the language of force,” he said.
He made clear that any agreement would have to end the US blockade preventing Iranian ships from using the Strait of Hormuz.
“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 US delegation left the UN chamber when Pezeshkian began his address. Washington did not immediately comment on his speech.
Pezeshkian also rejected Trump’s description of Iran as a terrorist state.
“The US president described us as terrorists. We have been the victims of terrorism,” he told the assembly in New York.
He then displayed a photograph of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who Iranian authorities say died in a strike on his residence when the US and Israel launched a joint attack in late February.
Pezeshkian also showed photographs of some of the more than 175 civilians whom Iranian authorities say died in missile strikes on a primary school in Minab and a sports complex in Lamerd. About two-thirds of those killed were children.
The US has denied carrying out the strike on Lamerd and said it is still investigating the incident in Minab.
“Our innocent people have been the targets of cowardly attacks and aggressions imposed on our country. And we defended ourselves with utmost strength,” Pezeshkian said.
Separately, an attack on a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz killed an Indian sailor on Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reported, citing Omani and Indian authorities.
India’s foreign ministry condemned the attack and called for the restoration of unimpeded passage through the strategic waterway.
Iran retaliated in February against a major US-Israeli air campaign by launching deadly missile and drone strikes on Israel and neighbouring Gulf Arab states that host US military bases.
Tehran also effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz by attacking commercial vessels in the Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. The waterway normally carries about one-fifth of global oil and gas shipments.
The US responded in April by imposing a blockade on Iranian ports and ships.
The two sides reached a preliminary agreement in June to end the war and reopen the strait. However, the arrangement collapsed within weeks after Iranian attacks on shipping resumed and the US restored its blockade.
Iran wants to retain some control over the Strait of Hormuz and collect fees from vessels using the waterway, while the US has rejected the demand.
Trump said in his UN General Assembly speech on Tuesday that he faced a “big decision” between negotiating a deal that would allow Iranians to rebuild their country and “annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly”.
Pezeshkian described the threat as “a sign of a bullying mentality”.
He also reiterated Iran’s position on its nuclear programme, saying Tehran would not surrender its right to civilian nuclear technology and would not seek nuclear weapons.
“We say it clearly: no nuclear weapons and no limitations on peaceful nuclear technology.”
Trump said the war had stopped Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb and demanded that its leaders “relinquish their nuclear ambitions”.
On Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US envoy Steve Witkoff held indirect talks in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Qatari mediators brokered the discussions.
Witkoff said he hoped the talks, the first between the two sides since June, would “prove constructive and promising” and said the mediators would continue their efforts.
However, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baqai said the talks were “not anything new”. He said Araghchi had maintained Iran’s conditions, including an end to the US blockade and the release of frozen Iranian assets.
