Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian used his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday to defend Iran’s conduct during the war with the United States and Israel, while insisting that Tehran remains willing to pursue negotiations aimed at ending the conflict.
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| Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian addresses the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 23, 2026. Photo: UN Photo |
Speaking at the 81st session of the General Assembly in New York, Pezeshkian said Iran had not sought the war but would continue to defend itself against military pressure.
“War was imposed on us, but we proved that we do not fear war to defend ourselves, nor do we shy away from negotiation for peace, and we stand ready to give our lives to defend beloved Iran,” he told world leaders.
His remarks came a day after US President Donald Trump used his own UN address to defend the war against Iran and warn that he could “annihilate the Islamic Republic” if the two sides failed to reach an agreement. Trump also called for greater international economic pressure on Tehran.
Pezeshkian responds to Trump
Pezeshkian directly challenged Trump’s description of Iran as a terrorist threat, portraying his country instead as a victim of attacks carried out by the United States and Israel.
“Yesterday, the US president said that Iran is a terrorist. We are victims of terrorism,” Pezeshkian said.
He referred to Iranian civilians killed during the conflict and highlighted strikes on the southern cities of Minab and Lamerd.
In Minab, a February 28 strike hit a girls’ school. UN human rights experts said in July that information they had received indicated at least 168 people were killed, almost all of them women and girls. The experts said the allegations raised serious concerns under international humanitarian and human rights law, including rules protecting civilians and schools during armed conflict.
Pezeshkian also referred to an attack in Lamerd, in southern Fars province, where Iranian authorities said a sports hall and nearby residential buildings were struck.
A UN fact-finding mission has since examined US military actions during the war and said there were reasonable grounds to believe that violations of international humanitarian law occurred in strikes on civilian sites. Washington has rejected allegations that its forces deliberately targeted civilians, while investigations into individual incidents have continued.
Nuclear dispute remains at the centre
Pezeshkian also accused Western governments of applying different standards to Iran and Israel over nuclear weapons and inspections.
“The atomic bomb is in Israel, but the inspectors are in Iran,” he said.
Israel maintains a policy of nuclear ambiguity and has never publicly confirmed possessing nuclear weapons. It is not a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, while Iran remains a member of the treaty and its declared nuclear facilities have historically been subject to International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.
The nuclear dispute remains one of the principal obstacles to a broader US-Iran settlement.
Trump said on Tuesday that Washington could not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States remained open to talks with Iranian officials at the UN if such discussions could produce progress.
Diplomacy continues behind the confrontation
Despite the sharp rhetoric from both presidents, developments around the UN gathering have also pointed to continuing diplomatic contacts.
Trump said after meeting British Prime Minister Andy Burnham on Tuesday that the United States and Iran had been communicating that day and that he believed a settlement would eventually be reached.
“They want to talk to us. They have been talking to us, even today,” Trump said.
A senior Iranian official separately told Reuters that Tehran's delegation in New York had full authority to revive diplomacy with Washington.
According to the official, Iran had already sent a proposal to the United States through mediators on September 16 and was prepared to discuss an agreement ending hostilities during the UN meetings.
The same official said Iran could reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days if the United States reduced military pressure and lifted its blockade of Iranian ports.
The waterway has become one of the central issues in negotiations because of its importance to global energy supplies and the disruption caused by the conflict.
War and negotiations at the same time
Pezeshkian’s appearance in New York therefore came against two competing developments: increasingly confrontational public statements from Tehran and Washington, and continued indirect contacts aimed at finding a diplomatic route out of the war.
The Iranian president said Tehran would negotiate for peace but would not accept talks conducted under military threats.
“We will never bow our head,” he said, arguing that negotiations could only succeed if they were conducted without what he described as the “language of force.”
Whether those contacts develop into formal negotiations remains unclear. No direct meeting between Pezeshkian and Trump had been scheduled at the UN as of Tuesday, although both governments publicly indicated that diplomatic communication was continuing.
Sources
Reuters; United Nations; UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights