Responding to President Donald Trump’s threat to annihilate Iran if the country refused to accept U.S. peace terms, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian delivered an obstinate message during his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday: “Iran cannot be made to surrender.”
The exchange marks the first time in United Nations’ history that the president of a country actively at war with the U.S. has addressed the General Assembly on American soil. Partway through Pezeshkian’s speech, the lone U.S. delegate stood and walked out of the room.
In his own address to the General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump asked Iran to accept one of two options: abandon their nuclear ambitions and open up commercial traffic in the Strait of Hormuz or face destruction.
“Do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again?” Trump asked.
From the stand, Pezeshkian addressed Trump by name. “We will never bow our head or bend the knee,” he said. “Iran must be understood by Mr. Trump and those who seek to bully us that we are ready for dialogue and negotiations without accepting the language of force.” Increasing sanctions and bullying, Pezeshkian added, will only increase Iran’s resistance.
Pezeshkian also denied Iran’s role in sponsoring terrorism throughout the Middle East and the world.
“For the last 200 years, Iran has not attacked any country or territory, but we’ve always defended ourselves steadfastly. Now we’re being accused of being a source of instability in the region. We’re being labeled terrorists,” Pezeshkian said.
He then described U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran as terrorism, holding up various printed photos of destroyed civilian infrastructure to the Assembly.
However, the money trail from Iran to various terrorist organizations has been well documented for decades. In Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain, Palestine, Lebanon, and elsewhere, Iran has provided support, funding, and training for a handful of militant groups. These militant groups have carried out attacks on civilians, U.S. embassies, military bases, commercial vessels, and government targets.
Iran has also supported proxy groups with financial and military support to fuel political instability and conflict across the Middle East.
Beyond denying his country’s involvement in terrorism, Pezeshkian also called on other U.N. nation states to help Iran. “We invite the world, we call the world, not out of weakness, but out of a deep belief in our own power and steadfastness to cooperate,” he said.
Sanctions against Iran, he continued, are what “the United States seeks to do with all countries: sacrifice the population of a country in order to achieve her illegitimate goals. If we want true peace and stability, we must apply one standard for all.”
Pezeshkian then addressed both the U.S. and Israel. “Iran cannot be made to surrender. Iran has never ever been an aggressor, has never started a war, and has always shown her commitment to the negotiating table,” he said. “They imposed the war on us, but we have proven that we are not afraid of fighting a war that is defensive in nature. And we will stand in defense of our beloved Iran, our homeland, until our last breath.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio responded to Pezeshkian’s speech by referencing Iran’s bloody crackdown of civilian protesters in late December.
“Slaughtering 10,000 of your own people in protests is a violation of the U.N.,” Rubio said. “I don’t know what standing Iran has to lecture anyone on human rights or the international system when they habitually violate it.”
He continued, “They violate the sovereignty of everyone — of their neighbors — by sponsoring terrorist organizations that reside within the borders of those countries. They slaughter their own people.”