'We will never bow our head': Iran's president strikes defiant tone in UN speech

Submitted by MEE staff on Wed, 09/23/2026 - 16:52 Pezeshkian said Iran would not 'bend the knee' to US threats a day after Trump said he could 'annihilate' the Islamic Republic

During the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian holds up a picture of victims killed by Israeli and American air strikes, on 23 September 2026 (Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP) Off

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday that Tehran will never “bow its head” to US threats but is open to diplomacy, a day after President Donald Trump threatened to “annihilate” the Islamic Republic.

Addressing Trump directly, Pezeshkian said the US leader “must know that the resistance of the Iranian people will only increase in the face of sanctions, increased pressure, increased bullying. We will never bow our head[s] or bend at the knee”.

Israel and the US attacked Iran in February amid negotiations over its nuclear programme. The war has dragged on, with two ceasefires collapsing, and pulled Arab Gulf states into the conflict, as well as Yemen and Lebanon.

Pezeshkian began his speech holding a photo of Iran’s 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated on 28 February in the opening salvo of the US-Israeli attack.

He also shared photographs of Iranian children killed by US air strikes and their graves.

US strikes on the Minab elementary school killed at least 150 people, including approximately 120 children.

A US strike that discharged thousands of tungsten pellets also targeted a sports complex in the southern Iranian city of Lamerd.

A UN fact-finding mission said earlier this month that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe the strikes amounted to war crimes.

Pezeshkian defends nuclear programme

Pezeshkian reaffirmed Iran’s denial of long-standing US claims that Tehran sponsors terrorism.

“Those who are terrorists, and train and protect terrorists, describe us as such. We have only defended ourselves. We are not terrorists,” he said. “America and Israel attacked us.”

“For the past two centuries, Iran has not attacked any territory or any country,” he said. “Now, we are labelled terrorists”.

The US has cited several justifications for its war on Iran. The Trump administration has claimed that Tehran was close to developing a nuclear weapon, despite boasting that it had destroyed Iran’s nuclear programme in June 2025 strikes.

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Pezeshkian reaffirmed Tehran’s claim that it is not seeking a nuclear weapon but will not give up a civilian nuclear programme.

“Iran does not accept for nuclear technology to be at the exclusive disposal of some,” he said. “We will not bow our head and give up the right that is inherently ours. We say it clearly: no nuclear weapons and no limitations to peaceful nuclear technology.”

Pezeshkian accused the US and Israel of hypocrisy for trying to constrain Iran’s nuclear programme while allowing Israel to maintain a nuclear arsenal. Israel does not admit to having nuclear weapons, but is widely understood to.

“Atomic and nuclear bombs are in the hands of the Israeli regime, but the inspectors are requested to come to Iran,” he said.

“The nuclear weapon is in Israel, but the inspectors are in Iran. Israel kills, but Iran is subject to sanctions,” he said. “They kill. We are sanctioned. We are punished”.

Iran needs a 'powerful' military for defence

The Trump administration also justified its attacks claiming that Iran’s ballistic missile programme is a threat to the US. Pezeshkian said Iran would maintain a “powerful” military to deter threats.

“Iran must be powerful, so as to avoid being threatened,” he said. “We do not wish to use our power for hegemony.”

“Our defensive systems have been built so that no one can think that the bombing of Iranian cities can go unanswered,” he said.

Pezeshkian also said that the Islamic Republic has the overwhelming support of its population, saying the US and Israel were behind protests that engulfed the country at the start of the year, which the Trump administration also used to justify its attack.

“The people of Iran have been in the street demonstrating in support of their homeland,” he said, adding that pro-government demonstrators were on guard for those “equipped, armed and trained by America and Israel to cause insecurity in our country”.

'Strait of Hormuz will not be used for aggression'

US and Iranian officials met on Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Iranian state media framed the meeting as direct engagement, and Trump's statements appeared to confirm that. The US then reframed the meeting as indirect.

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Iran submitted new terms to the US to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a flashpoint in the conflict, with both the US and Iran imposing rival blockades in the waterway, a critical chokepoint for global energy flows.

An Iranian official told AFP that Tehran’s preconditions had hardened to include the immediate release of $24bn in frozen funds and an end to Saudi Arabia’s blockade of territory controlled by Yemen’s Houthis, who are a key Iranian ally.

The June ceasefire extension that Iran and the US sealed broke down over the summer in part over Iran’s attempt to solidify its control over the Strait of Hormuz, where it wants to impose a toll on ships.

“In the Strait of Hormuz, we can’t let some have free access and gain their interests from a waterway, while at the same time using that waterway to impose their aggressions upon us… to forbid us access to our own waterways,” Pezeshkian said.

The US’s Arab Gulf allies have borne the brunt of Iranian reprisals for US-Israeli attacks. Earlier this week, Qatar and the UAE said Iran needed to be engaged and called for a new security framework.

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