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World

Pezeshkian tells UN Iran will never 'bow our head or bend the knee'

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian used his UN General Assembly address to reject Donald Trump's threat to 'annihilate' Iran, insisting Tehran would never surrender.

By Sarah Whitfield · · 1 min read

Portrait of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
khamenei.ir / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0) · source

Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, told the UN General Assembly on Wednesday that his country would never surrender to the United States, a day after US President Donald Trump threatened to “annihilate” the Islamic Republic.

“We will never bow our head or bend the knee,” Pezeshkian said in a defiant wartime address to the 81st session in New York, warning that “warfare knows no borders”, the Indian Express reported.

Opening his speech, Pezeshkian held up large photographs of the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — reported killed in an air strike on his Tehran compound on the first day of the US-Israeli assault in February — and of more than 150 Iranian schoolchildren killed in the first days of the war.

He accused the United States and Israel of targeting civilians, schools and hospitals and of using cluster bombs — presented by Dunya News as his allegations — while insisting Iran sought “peaceful nuclear technology”, not a nuclear bomb, Haaretz reported.

On diplomacy, Pezeshkian said Iran was “ready for dialogue and diplomacy and negotiations without accepting the language of force” — an offer of talks, not an agreement. He also warned Tehran would not let neighbours use the Strait of Hormuz to “impose their aggressions” on Iran.

US representatives walked out of the hall during his address, Dunya News reported.

Sources

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