Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian told the UN General Assembly that the U.S. and Israel are responsible for global instability, directly rebutting President Trump's warning a day earlier that he was weighing whether to "annihilate" Iran. The speech came as Iranian officials laid out conditions for reviving diplomacy and a UN fact-finding mission said it found grounds to believe the U.S. committed a war crime in a strike that killed civilians.
Pezeshkian rebuts Trump's "annihilate" threat
Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian used a defiant speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday to blame the U.S. and Israel for stoking global instability, accusing them of launching illegal attacks on Iranian civilians and infrastructure. The address was a direct rebuke of President Donald Trump, who told the UN a day earlier that he was weighing whether to "annihilate" Iran after nearly seven months of war between the two countries.
Trump was not present at the UN on Wednesday. He had returned to Washington overnight ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit. According to CNBC, Pezeshkian said, per a live translation of his speech: "The United States president described us as terrorists. We have been the victims of terrorism". He added that Iran will keep fighting back for as long as it takes.
Pezeshkian's appearance carries historic weight: no other leader has ever addressed the UN in person while his country was actively at war with the U.S., according to the New York Times. He opened his remarks by holding up photos of children he said were killed by U.S. and Israeli bombs.
War-crime findings surface over school strike
A Tomahawk missile strike on a primary school in Minab, in southern Iran, on the first day of the war killed more than 150 people, including approximately 120 children, though different sources have given different tallies. A preliminary military investigation found the U.S. responsible for the strike, the New York Times reported in March, though the Pentagon has not yet shared its official conclusions.
The UN's Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran said earlier this month it found "reasonable grounds" to believe the U.S. committed a war crime by launching indiscriminate attacks that killed or injured civilians, including the strikes that hit the school. Trump, in his own Tuesday address, dismissed the UN's Human Rights Council as "craven hypocrites" for criticizing U.S. immigration and transgender policies.
Iran lists conditions for reviving talks
Despite the rhetoric, both sides pointed to renewed contact. Trump told reporters Tuesday that U.S. officials held a "very good" three-hour meeting with Iranian envoys on the sidelines of the UN, though Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said the meeting lasted approximately two hours.
Baghaei said in an X post that Iranian officials laid out "clear and transparent" conditions for reviving diplomacy, including ending the U.S. naval blockade in the Gulf of Oman, ceasing what Tehran calls "economic terrorism," releasing Iran's restricted assets, and agreeing on a safe shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz. The list is likely a nonstarter for the U.S., which has repeatedly said its goal is ensuring Iran can never obtain a nuclear weapon. Iran maintains it is not pursuing such weapons but asserts its right to a peaceful nuclear program.
Source: CNBC
Trading involves risk.
Risk Disclaimer
