Iran's President Defies Trump From UN Podium as War Rages

Masoud Pezeshkian accused the US and Israel of stoking global instability in a UN speech delivered while his country remains at war with Washington.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian addressed the 81st UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, accusing the United States and Israel of launching illegal attacks on Iranian civilians and infrastructure and of stoking global instability. He began by holding up photographs of children he said were killed by US and Israeli bombs, and rejected President Trump's description of Iran as terrorists. "We have been the victims of terrorism," Pezeshkian said, adding that Iran seeks only to live independently and will fight back "until our last breath."

The appearance came nearly seven months after the US and Israel launched their war on Iran, which began with the killing of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. According to The New York Times, as reported by CNBC, no other leader has ever addressed the UN in person while his or her country is actively at war with the United States. Pezeshkian said Trump's threats of "annihilation" forced him to rewrite the speech he had prepared before traveling to New York, per CNN, and Iranian media — including hardline outlets — praised the address nearly unanimously.

Pezeshkian's central exhibit was a Tomahawk missile strike on a primary school in Minab in southern Iran on the first day of the war, which killed more than 150 people, including approximately 120 children, though sources have given varying tallies. CNBC reports that a preliminary military investigation found the US responsible for the strike, and that the UN's Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran said this month it found "reasonable grounds" to believe the US committed a war crime through indiscriminate attacks on civilians.

The speech laid out Iran's negotiating conditions. Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Iranian officials presented "clear and transparent" terms during sideline talks with US envoys: an end to the naval blockade in the Gulf of Oman, a halt to "economic terrorism" sanctions, release of restricted Iranian assets, and agreement on a safe shipping route in the Strait of Hormuz, which carried 20% of the world's oil before the war. Pezeshkian also declared "no nuclear weapons and no limitations to new peaceful nuclear technology," insisting Iran needs no one's permission to defend that right.

Hardliners at home are scrutinizing the diplomacy. CNN reports hardline lawmaker Ebrahim Rezaei demanded the foreign minister explain "on which authorization" he met the representative of the aggressor enemy, while Supreme National Security Council chief Mohsen Rezaei announced a new framework requiring Washington to take the first step before any future talks or reopening of Hormuz. At the UN itself, a delegation walked out during Pezeshkian's speech, according to Fox News, whose quoted expert argued both sides' rhetoric was predictable and that red lines have not moved.

Despite the confrontational rhetoric, both governments are still testing a diplomatic path. Trump said US officials held a "very good" multi-hour meeting with Iranian envoys on the UNGA sidelines, though Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the talks produced no major breakthrough, per CNN, signaling an earlier memorandum of understanding is off the table. Trump insists a deal is likely to come right after the November 3 midterm elections. Meanwhile, Oman's Maritime Security Center reported a ship targeted near the Strait of Hormuz killed one person, underscoring that the war's risks continue even as diplomacy resumes.