Seats reserved for the United States stood empty in the General Assembly Hall within minutes of Masoud Pezeshkian reaching the podium on Wednesday, September 23. Reuters and AP confirmed that the American delegation had walked out as the Iranian president began to speak, according to IBTimes UK, which also reported that he spoke in Persian with UN translation.
Then he held up photographs. They showed Iran’s former supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and more than 150 schoolchildren killed in the opening days of the war, The Guardian reported. “You see these children?” Pezeshkian said. “These children perished under bombs, with weapons used by the United States and Israel. They were innocent, had committed no crimes.” Elsewhere in the speech he said: “I come from an Iran where, in truth, they bombed a school.”
An answer to Trump
It was his first address to the Assembly since the US and Israel launched their war on Iran, and it was a reply to Donald Trump, who had spoken the day before. Trump told the Assembly he was weighing whether to “annihilate” Iran, asking whether a deal would let it rebuild or whether he would “drive them into hell.” Some reports said Iranian delegates walked out during his speech.
“The US president described us as terrorists. We have been the victims of terrorism,” Pezeshkian said. He accused Washington of terrorism for the assassination of Khamenei at the start of the war. The allies began their attack on February 28, 2026, and the conflict, paused briefly by an April ceasefire and a June memorandum of understanding, was nearly seven months old. “Yes, they did hit us, but we did not bend the knee,” he said.
He also left a door open. “It must be understood by president Trump and those who seek to bully us that we are ready for dialogue and diplomacy and negotiations but without the language of force,” he said. Iran had the right to a peaceful civil nuclear program, he added, but did not want nuclear weapons.
Talks behind the walkout
The timing was awkward for Washington. Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, and the US special envoy Steve Witkoff had met for three hours on the Assembly’s sidelines the day before. Both sides called it constructive, and it was their first such meeting since June. In Tehran, foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said the contact ran through Qatari mediation and was meant to pass on Iran’s conditions, among them ending the war and the naval siege and releasing Iranian assets.
Iran has set seven preconditions for returning to talks, and has said the Strait of Hormuz could reopen within seven days if they are met. The Guardian counted fewer than five identifiable tankers a day getting through. Washington did grant Pezeshkian a visa, but denied visas to several members of his entourage.
Sources
- US delegation walks out as Iran’s president angrily responds to Trump at UN – The Irish Times
- US Delegate Walks Out as Iran President Pezeshkian Says at UN: 'We Have Been the Victims of Terrorism' | IBTimes UK
