Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian spoke before the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, even as his country remains at war with the United States and a day after President Donald Trump threatened in a speech before the same body to “annihilate” Iran.
Pezeshkian began his brief address by saying that he had planned to deliver different remarks before hearing Trump’s speech Tuesday.
“The United States president described us as terrorists. We have been the victims of terrorism,” Pezeshkian said, holding up pictures of children killed in an airstrike on a school in Minab, in southern Iran.
“Iran must be powerful so as to avoid being threatened, to avoid its future being threatened,” he said.
The attack that killed 150 people, mostly children at the school in Minab, has been an enduring symbol for Iranians of the calamitous impact of attacks by Israel and the United States.
A U.N. report last week found that the United States may have committed “war crimes” when it launched its initial attacks against Iran in late February, including the strike on Minab — allegations the Trump administration has denied.
Iranian officials are pursuing a flurry of diplomatic meetings in New York. Trump administration officials on Tuesday held their first meeting with Iran since June.
“We engaged in lengthy talks with the Iranian delegation through the mediators, who shuttled between the two sides throughout the day,” U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said in an X post. He said he hoped the discussion “will prove constructive and promising. The mediators will continue their work.”
Iran is using the assembly as a chance to reach out to its neighbors on the sidelines. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met Tuesday with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. Months of war have shaken the Persian Gulf countries and ignited fronts of interrelated conflict across the Middle East — as Iran launched attacks across the region in retaliation for U.S. and Israeli strikes.
During his speech Tuesday, Trump said Iran faces a choice: to make a deal with the U.S. that could bring prosperity, or face annihilation.
“I have a big decision to make. Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before?” Trump said in his address to the U.N. General Assembly. “Or do I annihilate the Islamic republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again? Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations?”
More than six months into the war with Iran, the Trump administration has struggled to secure a decisive military victory. The two sides agreed to a framework of a deal in June that was intended to kick-start talks on a broader peace agreement, but it fell apart within weeks.
Last month, the Trump administration launched an economic pressure campaign against Iran. The measures have deepened a long-simmering economic crisis in Iran, pushing up inflation as Iranians report new shortages of electricity and gas.
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