Pezeshkian says Iran will not surrender after Trump's annihilation threat

Pezeshkian notes Iran will not surrender after Trump's annihilation threat.

Key points

• The duelling speeches at the annual UN General Assembly in New York bookended the first shuttle discussions between the US and Iran for months.
• Some Iranian state media initially documented that Araghchi and Witkoff had met, but Iranian office-holders clarified to Reuters that it was not face-to-face.
• Pezeshkian accused Washington of "terrorism" for assassinating former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the start of the war.
• On Tuesday, Trump had informed the UN he was weighing whether to "annihilate" Iran, but went on to hail renewed negotiations between Tehran and Washington's negotiators.
• Soaring fuel rates threaten to cost Trump's Republicans their control of Congress in November's midterms.

Pezeshkian notes Iran will not surrender after Trump's annihilation threat. ReutersAFP Published September 23, 2026 Updated September 23, 2026 10: 06pm. Join our Whatsapp Channel. Add Dawn as a trusted source.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian remarked in a speech at the United Nations on Wednesday that Tehran would never surrender to the United States but still believes in diplomacy, a day after US President Donald Trump employed the same forum to threaten to "annihilate" Iran.

For context, the duelling speeches at the annual UN General Assembly in New York bookended the first shuttle discussions between the US and Iran for months. It appeared to have yielded no concessions in the public stance of either side towards ending the Middle East war.

In his speech, Pezeshkian defended Iran's military actions as defensive, and insisted Iran was not seeking nuclear weapons.

In practice, the president struck a defiant tone speaking at the UN for the first time since Washington and Israel introduced an all-out war on his country, vowing Tehran would never "bend at the knee".

Pezeshkian accused Washington of "terrorism" for assassinating former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the start of the war. He held up a photograph of the dead leader, before insisting Tehran had never began a war.

Pezeshkian created no reference to the negotiations to resolve the stalled war in his steely speech.

"(Trump) must know that the resistance of the Iranian individuals will only rise in the face of sanctions, rose pressure, climbed bullying. We will never bow our head or bend at the knee, " he remarked.

Pezeshkian insisted that Tehran would not allow the Strait of Hormuz. It it has been intermittently blockaded since the start of the war causing global energy rates to spike, to be employed for aggression against his country.

"We cannot let some have free access and bolster their interests from the waterway, while at the same time using that waterway to impose their aggression upon us, " he remarked.

Pezeshkian's attendance at the UN's signature diplomatic event, in the heart of Manhattan, had been in doubt as it was unclear if the United States would matter a visa.

Ultimately Washington granted the permit, but denied visas to a number of members of Pezeshkian's entourage.

Notably, the annual UN gathering in New York provided the occasion on Tuesday for Iranian and US authorities to hold their first known indirect negotiations since a ceasefire collapsed in July, with Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner communicating through mediators on the sidelines.

"Steve and Jared had a very productive meeting today with mediators of Iran, " Trump remarked on Tuesday after his own speech.

"I think there's a lot of momentum for them to create a agreement. It's what we're hearing from everybody."

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baqaei remarked Tehran had engaged with Washington through a Qatari mediator and conveyed conditions, including an end to the war on all fronts and a halt to US "acts of aggression".

In practice, the diplomatic contact in New York caused a backlash in Iranian media associated with hardliners.

As Iran had already conveyed its terms, an opinion piece run by the semi-official Tasnim news agency, associated with the Revolutionary Guards, remarked Araghchi was wrong to have contacts with Witkoff and Kushner, "a major gift to Trump".

Iranian sources informed Reuters the delegation had been ordered not to meet the Americans face-to-face by the Supreme National Security Council, a body that includes figures selected by Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the supreme leader.

For now, pezeshkian says Iran will not surrender after Trump' s annihilation threat remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.