Iran’s president gave a rare speech in New York by a country at war with the United States on Wednesday, a day after President Trump threatened from the same podium to “annihilate” Iran.

“Yesterday the United States president described us as terrorists. We have been the victims of terrorism,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told the United Nations General Assembly.

He proceeded to hold up a portrait of the late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb. 28. He then held up photos of children he said were the victims of U.S. and Israeli bombings.

“Our innocent people have been the targets of cowardly attacks and aggressions imposed upon our country, and we defended ourselves with utmost strength,” he said.

The only U.S. delegation representative sitting in the hall walked out as Pezeshkian spoke.

Speaking at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, President Trump said he faced a big decision: Make a deal with Iran that lets them rebuild or “annihilate the Islamic Republic.” He also reiterated that he would not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.

Trump later said U.S. officials had met with Iranians for three hours. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz told NPR’s Morning Edition on Wednesday that the administration is “internalizing what they brought to the table.”

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, said on social media that an exchange of messages between Iran and the U.S. had taken place with Qatar as mediator. He said Iran’s conditions included halting U.S. hostilities, an end to the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports and the release of Iranian funds.

Pezeshkian denied at the U.N. that Iran wanted a nuclear weapon but refused limitations on the country’s civilian nuclear program, saying, “We seek energy for progress.”

Yet he emphasized that Iran has to remain strong.

“Iran must be powerful so as to avoid being threatened, to avoid its future being threatened. We do not wish to use our power for hegemony and we do not seek our security in the insecurity of others,” he said.

He also expressed a willingness to negotiate.

“We will never bow our head or bend at the knee,” Pezeshkian said — and then named the U.S. president directly. “It must be understood by Mr. Trump and those who seek to bully us that we are ready for dialogue and diplomacy and negotiations without accepting the language of force,” he said.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/09/27/iran-president-addresses-u-n-in-rare-speech-at-war-with-u-s/