Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian stood at the United Nations General Assembly looking like a man who hasn’t slept in weeks. Gaunt, drawn, the weight of a regime under siege etched into every line of his face.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has made clear that real decisions by the Iranian Shia Twelvers doomsday cult do NOT flow from the President of Iran - but still come from the latest Supreme Leader - now Mojtaba Khamenei, who remains largely unseen, likely disabled and operating through IRGC intermediaries after his father’s death—holed up somewhere secure.
Reports indicate that President Pezeshkian has tried to resign multiple times amid internal rifts, particularly with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, only to be blocked. He looks less like a sovereign leader and more like a hostage delivering lines he cannot escape.
What followed was pure propaganda: a speech that painted the Islamic Republic as eternal victim while erasing its own reign of terror since 1979.
Pezeshkian claimed Iran has been the target of terrorism, that it has never attacked another country in 200 years, and that its nuclear program is purely peaceful. He waved photos of dead children and the late Supreme Leader, accused the United States and Israel of genocide and aggression, and insisted Iran only defends itself. The double standards, the bullying, the labeling of “resistance” as terrorism—all the familiar refrains.
Missing from the speech was any acknowledgment of the blood Iran has spilled across the globe.
Iran’s Record of Terror Since 1979
The Islamic Republic has been designated a state sponsor of terrorism by the United States since 1984. Its preferred method is proxy warfare through the IRGC-Quds Force, allowing deniability while projecting power. Key chapters include:
1979–1981 U.S. Embassy Hostage Crisis: Iranian students, backed by the new regime, seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, holding 52 Americans for 444 days.
1983 Beirut Bombings: Iran-backed Islamic Jihad/Hezbollah suicide attacks on the U.S. Embassy (63 dead, including 17 Americans) and the Marine barracks (241 U.S. service members killed). Iranian officials later acknowledged involvement.
1980s Lebanon Hostage-Taking and Assassinations: Systematic kidnappings of Americans and Westerners by Hezbollah; torture and murder of CIA station chief William Buckley.
1992 and 1994 Buenos Aires Attacks: Hezbollah, directed by Iran, bombed the Israeli Embassy (29 dead) and the AMIA Jewish community center (85 dead)—the deadliest antisemitic attack outside Israel since the Holocaust. Argentine courts have held Iran responsible.
1996 Khobar Towers: Truck bomb in Saudi Arabia killed 19 U.S. Air Force personnel; Saudi Hezbollah operatives with IRGC ties.
Support for Al-Qaeda and 9/11 Facilitation: Iran provided training, logistics, and transit for al-Qaeda operatives. The 9/11 Commission documented that 8–10 of the muscle hijackers traveled through Iran (passports not stamped). A U.S. federal court later found Iran, the IRGC, and Hezbollah jointly liable for the attacks. Iran also aided the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania via Hezbollah.
2003–2011 Iraq: Iranian-backed Shia militias killed at least 603 U.S. troops using explosively formed penetrators and other weapons—roughly one in six American combat deaths.
Ongoing Proxy Network (“Axis of Resistance”):
Hezbollah (Lebanon): Founded and bankrolled by Iran (hundreds of millions annually). Rocket wars against Israel, global plots, drug trafficking, and attacks on Jews and Israelis abroad.
Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad: Funded, armed, and trained by Iran. Responsible for suicide bombings, rocket attacks, and the October 7, 2023 massacre (over 1,200 Israelis murdered). Iran has provided more than $100 million annually at times.
Houthis (Yemen): Supplied with Iranian drones, ballistic and cruise missiles. Attacks on Saudi infrastructure, Red Sea shipping (disrupting global trade), and strikes toward Israel.
Iraqi Shia Militias (Kata’ib Hezbollah, Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, Harakat al-Nujaba, and others): Hundreds of attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria post-October 2023, killing American service members and wounding scores.
Assassinations and Plots Abroad: Dozens of Iranian dissidents, journalists, and diplomats murdered or targeted in Europe, the U.S., and elsewhere. Recent plots include assassination attempts against former U.S. officials and even President Trump and likely Charlie Kirk.
This is not defense. It is a deliberate strategy of exporting revolution through terror, destabilizing neighbors, and killing Americans, Israelis, Jews, and Arabs who stand in the way of the regime’s ambitions.
Summary of the Speech
Pezeshkian’s address was a masterclass in inversion.
He opened by rejecting the “terrorist” label applied by the U.S. president the day before, declaring Iran the true victim. He held up images of children killed in what he described as U.S.-Israeli attacks on schools and sports halls, and of the late Supreme Leader “assassinated.”
He claimed Iran has never initiated aggression in two centuries, seeks only peaceful nuclear technology for medicine, agriculture, and energy, and rejects weapons of mass destruction. He condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide, accused the West of double standards (Israel has nukes and no inspections; Iran is sanctioned), and insisted that “resistance” is a natural human response to occupation.
He closed by offering dialogue “without accepting the language of force,” while vowing Iran will never bend the knee and that its people have demonstrated nightly for seven months in support of the homeland.
It was a carefully crafted narrative of pure victimhood that airbrushed away the hostages of 1979, the Marines of Beirut, the dead of Buenos Aires, the American troops killed by Iranian EFPs, the October 7 slaughter enabled by Iranian weapons and money, and the Red Sea chaos inflicted by Iranian-supplied missiles. The “resistance” he celebrated is the same network that has maimed and murdered civilians for decades. The “defensive” power he demands has been used to threaten the world’s energy chokepoints and target Jews and Americans far from Iranian borders.
The exhausted man at the podium may indeed be a hostage of the system he serves. But the regime he represents has been the aggressor for nearly half a century. Words of victimhood cannot wash away the blood.
Full Transcript
PRESIDENT OF IRAN: In the name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful.
Mr. President, Mr. Secretary-General, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen.
I had prepared a speech to present to you yesterday. The United States President described us as terrorists. We have been the victims of terrorism.
I come from an Iran in which our esteemed Supreme Leader was assassinated without any legal framework or reason.
I come from an Iran where, in truth, they bombed a school. You see these children?
These children perished under bombs, with weapons used by the United States and Israel. They were innocent, had committed no crimes.
Lamerd, one of the small cities in a province in Iran, a sports hall where children were busy playing. The United States, by using weapons with multiple warheads, targeted that sports hall. They martyred, assassinated, our scientists, our men, women, and children. Innocent children who, in truth, had committed no crimes, no sins. Those who are terrorists and train and protect terrorists describe us as such. We have only defended ourselves.
We are not terrorists.
Our innocent people have been the targets of cowardly attacks and aggressions imposed upon our country, and we defended ourselves with utmost strength. America and Israel attacked us, equipped with the latest technology and weapons systems, and our people stood steadfast. Yes, they did hit us, but we did not bend the knee. We did not bow our head. We responded, but we did not hit civilian populations.
They came into surrounding territories and targeted our universities, our healthcare centers, our schools, our hospitals, our infrastructures—all of it against international law. When I took over the responsibilities as President, they assassinated Ismail Haniyeh in Iran. On the day of my inauguration, Israel targets any neighborhood, in any city, in any province, commits assassinations like a true terrorist. In Gaza, over 80,000 innocent civilians have been murdered, brutally murdered. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced.
They are committing genocide by using the so-called technologies that they have at their disposal. Then they label others as terrorists.
Are we the sources of instability? We only seek to live independently. They are the ones who cause instability. Those who are committing terrorism and committing crimes, are they the protectors of peace and stability? None of the international laws have been adhered to by them.
This is what we’re facing. We don’t want anything. We have received our response.
We need strength, because a people which is unable to defend itself will be trampled upon in today’s world.
We live in a world in which the powerful, instead of thinking about humanity, justice, fairness, and democracy, they seem to be the protectors and creators of instability and destruction.
Whomever they wish to discredit, they label them as terrorists. Two hundred years—for the past two centuries—Iran has not attacked any country or any territory, but we’ve always defended ourselves steadfastly. But now we’re being accused of being source of instability in the region? We’re labeled terrorists?
And this has made it so that the path that we have chosen for ourselves requires power to defend ourselves. We do not seek power in order to attack or commit aggression.
We seek energy for progress, not to threaten societies with weapons. And we wish to cooperate and collaborate for security.
The people of Iran, in the past 7 months, our people, have been in the streets every night demonstrating in support of their land, of their homeland, so as to not allow those who were equipped and trained and armed by Israel and America to cause disruption in the security of their country. For 7 months, day and night, they’ve been present in the streets. They are our source of power and our support. And that’s why we stand fast.
Iran must be powerful so as to avoid being threatened, to avoid its future being threatened. We do not wish to use our power for hegemony, and we do not seek our security in the insecurity of others. Vis-à-vis Iran’s defense, our defensive systems have been built so that no one can think that bombing of Iranian cities will go unanswered. That is why we have the military power we do for defense.
But we say it clearly: in order to defend our country, we do not seek anyone’s permission or approval. We seek energy for progress.
For years, they have labeled centrifuges, international sanctions, other labels—when it comes to our nuclear technology. But for our country, peaceful nuclear technology is part of our inherent progress.
For our sick people, it is cure and treatment. For the agricultural sector, it is food security. For industry, it is advancement and progress and supply of electrical energy.
Iran does not accept for nuclear technology to be at the exclusive disposal of some, of a handful. We will not— we will not bow our head and give up the right that is inherently ours. We say it clearly: no nuclear weapons, and no limitations to peaceful nuclear technology. Our peace will not come in the field of battle.
But they must give the needed security to the people and nation of Iran. We seek cooperation in order to have security. We live in a region in which warfare knows no borders. Crisis in one land will spill into the surrounding nations. That’s why Iran does not see her neighbors as security rivals. We want to have strong neighbors.
In waters in the Strait of Hormuz, we do not— we cannot let some have free access and gain their interests from a waterway while at the same time using that waterway to impose their aggressions upon us, to impose insecurity upon us, to forbid us access to our own waterways.
They close access for us to our own waterway, yet they keep supplying missiles and deadly military technologies to bring insecurity to all of the lands surrounding that waterway. We will not succumb to that.
The expansion of warfare will not result in security. One cannot create chaos for the coastal countries seeking naval security.
Excellencies, vis-à-vis Palestine, Palestine remains an open wound on the conscience of the international community, and Gaza remains a symbol of the failure of international mechanisms to prevent civilian suffering. For decades, resolutions have been adopted, yet occupation and violence have continued. We cannot speak of peace while ignoring Palestine. Lasting peace in West Asia is impossible without justice for Palestine.
As long as occupation, aggression, and injustice persist in the world, resistance will continue. If it is weakened in one form, it will reemerge in others, perhaps stronger still. Gaza, despite relentless killing and widespread devastation, has strengthened the people’s faith in resistance. And resistance cannot be destroyed by bombs and siege.
This is human nature. If a human being is driven from his or her land, they will resist. If their homes are subjected to bombings and aggression and attacks, they will resist. What other choice do they have? Succumb to bullying?
To be driven from their homes, from their lands, and remain silent in the face of these threats and dangers? And when they defend themselves, they’re labeled as terrorists?
The language makes it, unfortunately, clear the type of world that we’re living in today.
Our regional issues must be resolved in the region, at the hands of the countries in the region, without becoming a toy in the hands of outside aggressors. No relationship with a foreign power can become the tools of threatening neighboring countries in the region. And now, a few words with those who are responsible for having planned and carried out aggressions against our country and our people have experienced firsthand the result of their deadly aggression.
And they have tested the strength and the steadfastness of Iran, and they have learned that Iran cannot be made to surrender. Iran has never, ever been an aggressor, has never started a war, and has always shown her commitment to the negotiating table.
They imposed the war on us, but we proved—we have proven—that we’re not afraid of fighting, of war, a war that is defensive in nature. And we will stand in defense of our beloved Iran, our homeland, until our last breath.
Ladies and gentlemen, the topic of this gathering is mutual trust. That cannot be achieved through words only, but by abstaining from using double standards.
Atomic and nuclear bombs are in the hands of the Israeli regime, but the inspectors are requested to come to Iran. Israel has murdered savagely over 70,000 innocents in Gaza, but Iran, while behind the table of negotiation, was bombed. Israel has the bombs, has weapons of mass destruction, not a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty during her shameful life has not allowed a single inspection. But they are rewarded by all the means necessary for them to be able to bomb any capital in the region at will.
I will repeat: the nuclear weapon is in Israel, but the inspectors in Iran. Israel kills, but Iran is subject to sanctions. This is a true tragedy, which would make anyone hearing it laugh, at best. They kill, we are sanctioned, we are punished. Those who are ill, innocent people, the poor, the least privileged in our society, are the targets of these sanctions.
And this is what the United States seeks to do with all countries: to sacrifice the population of a country in order to achieve her illegitimate goals. If we seek true peace and stability, we must apply a single standard for all.
Iran does not seek special treatment. We seek equal rights. We assume the responsibility, accept the responsibility that comes with it.
But Iran, during her prideful history, has learned the following lesson: a world without power is dangerous, but a world that only understands the language of war and bullyism will not be safe.
When we seek to have agendas to implement that only adhere to the benefits of a few privileged, we will have a world in disarray. But we see that this will become a world much more dangerous for all of us.
We must not allow the 21st century to go back to an era of only the powerful and the bullying powers and the hegemons. We must not build a world in which military power replaces legitimacy, terrorism replaces politics and negotiations, and war replaces dialogue and diplomacy.
Iran extends her hand towards the world. We invite the world. We call the world, not out of weakness, but out of a deep belief in our own power and steadfastness, to cooperate and collaborate. Because of a deep belief that no one in this region will have security alone. Either we will build it together, or we will have to live under insecurity together. We seek to think about a world future in which security, fairness, justice, human dignity will become unalienable rights for all people, for all humans.
A future in which no people are driven to the sidelines, no voice is lost in the chaos of power, and no power will have the right to determine the future of a people other than those people themselves.
If we truly seek to have an order based on international law and standards, it must be based in justice, common human will, uplifting human dignity. Because a peace that does not encompass all is no peace, and fairness and justice that does not embrace all is not worthy of being called justice and fairness.
But going back to the words of the President of the United States yesterday shows those who are experts in international law and dialogue and diplomacy and basic human standards that everything other about our country goes against the very essence and charter and the spirit of the United Nations.
He must know that the resistance of the Iranian people will only increase in the face of sanctions, increased pressure, increased bullying. We will never bow our head or bend at the knee.
Iran must be understood by Mr. Trump and those who seek to bully us that we are ready for dialogue and diplomacy and negotiations without accepting the language of force. I truly appreciate your time and presence here.
May God bless you all.
Look again at that final image of Pezeshkian at the podium: exhausted, hollowed out, delivering lines that sound defiant while quietly conceding the only point that actually matters.
Buried in the middle of the speech, almost casually, came the words the regime almost never says this cleanly in public: “We say it clearly: no nuclear weapons, and no limitations to peaceful nuclear technology.”
For decades Tehran has danced around that sentence with deliberate ambiguity, enrichment levels that make no sense for civilian use, and endless games with inspectors.
Suddenly the president of the Islamic Republic is stating it plainly on the biggest stage in the world, right after the United States and Israel have hit them hard, right after Trump threatened annihilation, and right while the real decision-makers remain in the shadows.
Then came the close: “We will never bow our head or bend at the knee - but we are ready for dialogue and diplomacy and negotiations without accepting the language of force.”
That is not strength. That is the classic Iranian method of caving while pretending not to. Wave the bloody shirt, deny every crime, claim eternal resistance, then slip the real message between the lines: the nuclear weapons path is off the table, and the door to talks is open—just don’t make us admit we were forced.
The exhausted face tells the truth the rhetoric tries to hide. The regime has been bloodied. The Supreme Leader is unseen. The president looks like a man held in place against his will. And when the bluster is stripped away, what remains is a quiet surrender dressed up as defiance.
They caved. This is simply how they do it.
AI REVIEW: This piece is tightly written, sources the speech extensively, and pairs the transcript with a factual counter-record. It reads as ready to publish—clear structure, strong sourcing on the historical points, and a consistent analytical through-line.
PS: 26 countries walked out during Iran’s speech. Notable that countries in the new ‘Axis of Evil’ - BRICS - stayed. Russia and Communist China stayed - they obviously support the terror nation of Iran.
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The bottom line is peaceful use of Nuclear for power generation requires the U-235 material be concentrated to 3.5% to 5.0%. For military use it requires over 90%. So, what has Iran been doing?
See how simple this is? That huge and complex speech was just words aimed at selling a total lie. How do we deal with such craziness?
America will gladly sell 5% fuel to Iran cheaper than they can make it themselves. They need zero centrifuges, not ten thousand. The truth will set them free.
Lie, cheat, and deceive are their talents. They will always play the victim because of their ideology.