Iran’s Pezeshkian slams ‘terrorist’ US but extols diplomacy in UN speech

Pezeshkian leaves door open for negotiations, while calling out international community’s double standards.

Iran: Strait of Hormuz won’t be used to ‘impose insecurity on us’

In a defiant speech at the United Nations General Assembly, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has delivered a sharp rebuke to a threat by US President Donald Trump from the same rostrum the previous day to annihilate the country, but left the door open for diplomacy to end nearly seven months of war.

“The US president called us terrorists but we are the victims of terrorists,” Pezeshkian said on Wednesday.

During his speech, Pezeshkian held up a picture of former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – assassinated in a joint US-Israeli strike at the start of the war in February – as well as photos of schoolgirls killed in an alleged US air attack on their school in the southern city of Minab.

“They hit us, but we did not bow our heads or bend the knee,” Pezeshkian added.

As the Iranian president began his speech, an official from the US delegation walked out of the vast hall. The Israeli delegation also boycotted the address.

“[Trump] must know that the resistance of the Iranian people will only grow in the face of sanctions and increased pressure and bullying,” Pezeshkian said.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian holds up a picture of former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated in a US-Israeli attack in February, as he addresses the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday [Caitlin Ochs/Reuters]

But Pezeshkian, a relative centrist in the Iranian ruling system, also left the door open for negotiations, saying, “Iran extends its hands towards the world.”

“We invite the world and call to it, not out of weakness, but out of a deep belief in our own power and steadfastness to cooperate and collaborate out of a deep understanding that no one in this region will have security alone,” he said.

On Tuesday, Trump said his son-in-law Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, who are both leading negotiations with Tehran, had held a three-hour meeting with Iranian officials.

“They had a very good meeting, a very productive meeting,” Trump told reporters at the UN, adding that he believed there was “a lot of momentum” towards an agreement. Trump later said talks were continuing and that he believed a settlement would eventually be reached.

The remarks came after Trump used his speech before UN delegates to again threaten Iran’s destruction.

“Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before?” Trump said. “Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again?”

Addressing the US naval blockade of Iran and Tehran’s campaign to choke off trade in the Strait of Hormuz, Pezeshkian said Iran would resist what he called US efforts to use the critical sea lane to expand its war on the country.

“In the Strait of Hormuz, we cannot have some free access and gain their independence from that waterway while at the same time use that waterway to impose their aggressions upon us and to impose insecurity upon us; to forbid us access to our own waterways,” he said.

Negar Mortazavi, a senior fellow at the US-based Center for International Policy, said the Iranian president’s speech showed usual flashes of defiance, but notably signalled an appetite for a diplomatic off-ramp.

“Iran wants a way out of this war. They’ve kept the door to diplomacy open,” she told Al Jazeera.

“Reading between the lines of the Iranian president’s speech, it seems Iran may even show some flexibility as far as a return to some sort of agreement that may not be exactly along the lines of the June Memorandum of Understanding that US President Trump doesn’t seem interested in returning to,” she said. The memorandum , which has expired, called for a halt to fighting, lifting the US naval blockade and opening the Strait of Hormuz to maritime traffic.

Compromise still a possibility

Drawing parallels between the US and Israel bombing of Iran and Israel’s attacks in Gaza, Pezeskhian said Israel’s genocide in Gaza “revealed the double standards to which Iran is held by the international community”.

“They kill and we are sanctioned and we are punished,” Pezeshkian added.

Joey Hood, a former US diplomat and ambassador to Tunisia, said the speech leaned heavily into familiar Iranian official rhetoric and represented a lost opportunity to seek compromise.

“Instead of coming to the United Nations with something new and bold, we heard the same things that we’ve heard before,” Hood said, adding that a concrete peace offer or proposal posed to the US in the speech might have focused Washington’s attention.

“That would actually put Donald Trump on the backfoot, and he would have to respond. The Iranian president didn’t do any of that,” Hood said.

佩泽什基扬为谈判敞开了大门，同时批评国际社会的双重标准。

伊朗：霍尔木兹海峡不会被用来“给我们制造不安全感”

伊朗总统马苏德·佩泽什基安在联合国大会上发表了措辞强硬的演讲，严厉驳斥了美国总统唐纳德·特朗普前一天在同一讲台上发出的要消灭伊朗的威胁，但他同时也为通过外交途径结束这场持续近七个月的战争敞开了大门。

“美国总统称我们为恐怖分子，但我们才是恐怖分子的受害者，”佩泽什基安周三表示。

在演讲中，佩泽什基安举起了前最高领袖阿亚图拉·阿里·哈梅内伊的照片——他在二月份战争开始时被美国和以色列联合袭击暗杀——以及据称在美国对南部城市米纳布的学校进行空袭中丧生的女学生的照片。

“他们打了我们，但我们没有低头屈服，也没有屈膝下跪，”佩泽什基安补充道。

伊朗总统开始演讲时，一名美国代表团官员走出了宽敞的大厅。以色列代表团也抵制了此次演讲。

佩泽什基安说：“（特朗普）必须明白，面对制裁、日益增长的压力和欺凌，伊朗人民的抵抗只会愈演愈烈。”

伊朗总统马苏德·佩泽什基安周三在联合国大会上发表讲话时，举起了前最高领袖阿亚图拉·阿里·哈梅内伊的照片。哈梅内伊于今年2月在美国和以色列的袭击中遇刺身亡。[凯特琳·奥克斯/路透社]

但伊朗统治体系中相对中间派的佩泽什基安也为谈判敞开了大门，他说：“伊朗向世界伸出了双手。”

他说：“我们邀请世界各国，呼吁世界各国，不是出于软弱，而是出于对自身力量的坚定信念，以及对合作与协作的坚定决心，因为我们深刻认识到，在这个地区，没有任何一方能够独自获得安全。”

周二，特朗普表示，他的女婿贾里德·库什纳和史蒂夫·威特科夫（两人都在领导与德黑兰的谈判）与伊朗官员举行了三个小时的会晤。

特朗普在联合国告诉记者：“他们举行了一次非常好的会谈，一次非常富有成效的会谈。”他还补充说，他相信达成协议的“势头很强劲”。特朗普随后表示，谈判仍在继续，他相信最终会达成协议。

此前，特朗普在联合国代表面前发表讲话，再次威胁要摧毁伊朗。

特朗普说：“我会和伊朗达成协议，让他们重建家园，建立一个比以往任何时候都更加强大的国家吗？还是我会迅速消灭伊朗伊斯兰共和国，不给他们再次杀戮和摧毁人民和国家的机会？”

针对美国对伊朗的海上封锁以及德黑兰试图切断霍尔木兹海峡贸易的行动，佩泽什基安表示，伊朗将抵制他所称的美国利用这条关键海上航道扩大其对伊朗战争的企图。

他说：“在霍尔木兹海峡，我们不能一方面享有自由通行权，另一方面又利用这条水道对我们施加侵略，给我们带来不安全感，禁止我们进入自己的水道。”

美国国际政策中心高级研究员内加尔·莫尔塔扎维表示，伊朗总统的讲话表现出惯常的挑衅姿态，但值得注意的是，他表现出寻求外交解决之道的意愿。

她告诉半岛电视台：“伊朗希望找到摆脱这场战争的办法。他们一直敞开着外交大门。”

她表示：“从伊朗总统的讲话字里行间来看，伊朗似乎可能展现出一定的灵活性，愿意回归某种协议，但该协议可能与美国总统特朗普似乎无意重返的6月份谅解备忘录有所不同。” 这份已经失效的备忘录呼吁停止战斗，解除美国海上封锁，并开放霍尔木兹海峡的海上交通。

妥协仍然是一种可能

佩泽斯基安将美国和以色列轰炸伊朗与以色列袭击加沙相提并论，称以色列在加沙的种族灭绝“揭示了国际社会对待伊朗的双重标准”。

“他们杀人，我们却受到制裁和惩罚，”佩泽什基安补充道。

美国前外交官、驻突尼斯大使乔伊·胡德表示，该演讲大量采用了伊朗官方熟悉的措辞，错失了寻求妥协的机会。

胡德说：“我们来到联合国，听到的却是以前听过的老生常谈。”他还补充说，如果演讲中能向美国提出具体的和平提议或方案，或许能引起华盛顿的注意。

“那样一来，唐纳德·特朗普实际上就会陷入被动，不得不做出回应。但伊朗总统并没有这样做，”胡德说道。