UNGA: Trump Delegate Walks Out as Iran's President Accuses US of 'Terrorism' - Newsweek

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian defended his country as a "victim of terrorism" during his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, as the chamber's lone U.S. delegate walked out of the hall.

The speech came a day after President Donald Trump told world leaders that the United States could "annihilate" Iran if necessary. During Trump's address, most members of Iran's delegation staged a walkout in protest.

Israel's delegation also walked out as Pezeshkian spoke.

Opening his remarks, Pezeshkian held up photographs of Iran's late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and more than 150 schoolchildren who were killed in the opening days of the war.

“We have only defended ourselves. We are not terrorists,” Pezeshkian said. “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.”

He added about the United States: “Yes, they did hit us, but we did not bend the knee.”

Pezeshkian also called out Trump by name.

“It 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,” he said.

In response via email to Newsweek, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly rejected Iran's portrayal of itself as a victim, accusing the regime of carrying out violence against its own people, Americans and neighboring countries. She said Trump is acting to ensure Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon, arguing that doing so would make "the entire world safer and more stable."

Since U.S. strikes on Iran began in February, Trump has consistently argued that Iran must not obtain a nuclear weapon, citing that goal as a central justification for U.S. involvement in the conflict. In last year's U.N. address, Trump said the United States had already "demolished" Iran's nuclear capabilities following U.S. strikes on three of the country's facilities in June 2025.

Pezeshkian contrasted scrutiny of Tehran's nuclear program with the lack of inspections on Israel.

"The nuclear bombs are in Israel, but the inspectors are in Iran," he said. "Israel has nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction. It is not a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has never allowed international inspections. Yet it is rewarded with the means to strike any capital in the region at will."

The war hits seven months next week, having cost $38 billion by August 1. The number of U.S. military fatalities linked to the Iran war has increased to 19.

Pezeshkian's address coincides with sporadic U.S. attacks around the Strait of Hormuz as commercial shipping remains 90 percent below prewar levels.

"They close access to us for our own waterway, yet they keep supplying missiles and deadly military technologies to bring insecurity to all of the lands surrounding that waterway," the Iranian president told world leaders.

On Tuesday, Trump told reporters that U.S. and Iranian officials met for three hours at the General Assembly. He said that his two diplomatic representatives, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, had “a very productive meeting today” with Iranian mediators.

Witkoff posted Tuesday on X, "Today, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, we engaged in lengthy talks with the Iranian delegation through the mediators, who shuttled between the two sides throughout the day. They successfully completed a round of discussions that we hope will prove constructive and promising. The mediators will continue their work."

However, Iranian officials downplayed the indirect talks, conducted through Qatari mediators, marking the first known contact between Washington and Tehran since June's ceasefire collapsed. Tehran has continued to demand that the U.S. lift its blockade of Iranian ports and release frozen Iranian assets.

Esmail Baghaei, a spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry, dismissed the discussions as "not anything new."

Trump asserted again on Tuesday that he believes Iran is waiting until after the U.S. midterm elections to make a deal.

“They’re waiting to see how I do in the midterm election,” Trump said of Iran. “What they don’t realize is that I’m not running. I did that already, and won in a landslide … and I’ll be here for two-and-a-half years.”

Responding to questions Wednesday about whether Iran may be waiting to see if the U.S. political landscape changes in favor of Democrats after November's elections, Secretary of State Marco Rubio argued that Tehran misunderstands the extent of presidential authority over national security and foreign policy.

"I think the Iranians are fundamentally misreading our political system," Rubio told reporters at the General Assembly. "The president made it very clear yesterday that, for him, the Iranian issue is not a political issue. For almost 15 years, every American president, and frankly most countries around the world, have agreed that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon."

Rubio added that Trump believes previous administrations failed to adequately address the issue and is prepared to act despite the potential costs.

"He's going to do something about it, and he's doing something about it," Rubio said. "It comes at a price and at a cost, there's no doubt about it. But the cost of not doing something about it is substantially higher, especially for future generations."

Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Jason Lemon and Gray R. Thomas