United Nations (United States) (AFP) โ Iran's president struck a defiant tone at the UN on Wednesday where he spoke for the first time since Washington and Israel launched an all-out war on his country, vowing Tehran would never "bend at the knee."
Masoud 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 started a war.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump had told the UN he was weighing whether to "annihilate" Iran, but went on to hail renewed talks between Tehran and Washington's negotiators.
Pezeshkian made no reference to the talks to resolve the stalled war in his steely speech.
"(Trump) 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," he said.
Pezeshkian insisted that Tehran would not allow the Strait of Hormuz, which it has been intermittently blockaded since the start of the war causing global energy prices to spike, to be used 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 said.
Soaring fuel prices threaten to cost Trump's Republicans their control of Congress in November's midterms.
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 issue a visa.
Ultimately Washington granted the permit, but denied visas to several members of Pezeshkian's entourage.
The president pulling a King Leonidas at the UN