WASHINGTON (AP) —Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said Wednesday that his people have been “victims of terrorism” by the United States, delivering a rare wartime speech at U.N. General Assembly a day after President Donald Trump said he could “annihilate” the Islamic republic.
According to a transcript on CSPAN
Pezeshkian vowed that his country would never surrender to the U.S. and Israel, but left the door open to negotiations to end the nearly seven-month war as he addressed the United Nations General Assembly.
- "We have only defended ourselves. We are not terrorists," he told world leaders. "Yes, they did hit us, but we did not bend the knee. We did not bow our head. We responded, but we did not hit civilian populations."
His speech marked the first time a president of a country actively at war with the U.S. came to New York to address the General Assembly.
- A few months ago, President Pezeshkian was hiding in a bunker amid a barrage of American and Israeli strikes targeting senior Iranian leaders. This week, he's in New York City being protected by the U.S. Secret Service.
President Pezeshkian said the Iranian people were "victims of terrorism" by the U.S. and Israel, claiming his country did not want a nuclear weapon but would accept no limits on its civilian nuclear program.
- "For our country, peaceful nuclear technology is part of our inherent progress," he said. "We will not bow our head and give up the right that is inherently ours. We say it clearly: No nuclear weapons and no limitations to peaceful nuclear technology."
President Pezeshkian also said Iran would not allow the Strait of Hormuz, which has been at the heart of the military standoff, to be used for aggression against his country.
- "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.
Iran has restricted shipping traffic through the waterway, driving up global oil prices, while the U.S. military has implemented a blockade on Iranian shipping through the strait.
- "They close access to us for our own waterway, yet they keep supplying missiles and deadly military technologies to bring insecurity to all of the lands surrounding that waterway. We will not succumb to that," he said.
Despite his defiant tone, President Pezeshkian called on world leaders to collaborate in pursuit of "true peace and stability" in the face of what he called "bullying" from the U.S., Israel and their allies.
- "Iran extends her hand towards the world," he said. "We call the world, not out of weakness, but out of a deep belief in our own power and steadfastness to cooperate and collaborate, because of a deep belief that no one in this region will have security alone."
He said the Iranian people would only become more resistant in the face of sanctions and pressure, but that his country was ready for negotiations.
- "We will never bow our head or bend at the knee," he said. "We are ready for dialogue and diplomacy and negotiations without accepting the language of force."
His remarks came a day after U.S. and Iranian officials held roughly three hours of indirect talks through mediators on the sidelines of the General Assembly, the first such talks since a June ceasefire unraveled.
- President Trump described the discussions as "very productive," while Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday cautioned against characterizing them as a major breakthrough.
Secretary Rubio also dismissed the idea that the midterm elections will have any impact on how the U.S. deals with Iran, saying the Iranians don't understand the American political system.
- "I think the Iranians are under this illusion that Democrats are going to win in November, and the president will no longer be able to do things against them," he told reporters. "I just don't think they understand our system very well."