Newz'We will never bow our head': Iran's president strikes defiant tone in UN speech Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday that Tehran will never “bow its head” to US threats but is open to diplomacy, a day after President Donald Trump threatened to “annihilate” the Islamic Republic. Addressing Trump directly, Pezeshkian said the US leader “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[s] or bend at the knee”.
Israel and the US attacked Iran in February amid negotiations over its nuclear programme. The war has dragged on, with two ceasefires collapsing, and pulled Arab Gulf states into the conflict, as well as Yemen and Lebanon. Pezeshkian began his speech holding a photo of Iran’s 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated on 28 February in the opening salvo of the US-Israeli attack.
He also shared photographs of Iranian children killed by US air strikes and their graves. UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Iran’s president said Wednesday that his people have been “victims of terrorism” by the United States, delivering a rare wartime speech at the U.N. General Assembly a day after President Donald Trump said he may “annihilate” the Islamic Republic if a deal isn’t reached soon to end the nearly seven-month war.The defiant speech by President Masoud Pezeshkian marked a striking instance of a foreign leader addressing the world body while their country is at war with the host nation.
While defending his country, Pezeshkian held up large photos of the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the more than 150 Iranian schoolchildren 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.”He added of the United States: “Yes they did hit us, but we did not bend the knee.” Toward the end of his speech, Pezeshkian called out Trump by name.“It 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.Shortly after, both U.S.
and Israeli officials blasted the speech, saying that it was hypocritical for the Islamic Republic to present itself as the victims of the world.U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters: “I don’t know what standing Iran has to lecture anyone on human rights or the international system when they habitually violate it.”A busy 24 hours for US-Iran relationsArriving in New York under heavy security and scrutiny, Pezeshkian — who, within Iran’s political landscape, is considered a moderate politician — addressed world leaders a day after Trump used the same stage to mull whether to massively escalate a war that has already spiraled out of control.“I have a big decision to make,” Trump said in his wide-ranging address Tuesday. “Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before, maybe one of the greatest in the Middle East or even the world.
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