Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, will address the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday as his country faces a crossroad after being battered from a brief war with Israel and the United States and suffering under sanctions.
Mr. Pezeshkian, a cardiovascular physician turned politician of moderate views, is coming to New York searching for a way to prevent the return of more sanctions on his country — this time from the United Nations Security Council — over disputes with Europeans about Iran’s nuclear program.
In June, Israel and Iran went to war for 12 days after Israel launched surprise airstrikes on Iran’s military facilities and assassinated members of its top military command chain. Iran retaliated by launching ballistic missile strikes at Israel. And the United States bombed Iran’s three nuclear facilities, effectively disabling its program.
Mr. Pezeshkian will appear on the global stage for the first time since the June conflict, seeking to portray Iran as a victim of an unprovoked military aggression by Israel and the United States, and now potential sanctions from Europe, according to two Iranian official with knowledge of the planning for the president’s trip.
Iran has long claimed that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and it is not seeking a bomb. The U.N.’s atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, which had inspectors and cameras in Iran’s facilities up to the time of the attacks, has said it had found no evidence that Iran was weaponizing its program.
But Iran has also had a hostile policy toward Israel, with Iranian officials calling for the elimination of the Jewish state and funding and arming militant groups across the region, like Hamas and Hezbollah, to fight Israel. Iran had also accelerated its nuclear program, enriching uranium to near weapons grade, and had accumulated enough of a stockpile of enriched uranium to make several bombs if it chose to weaponize.
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