Iran president accuses US of ‘grave betrayal’ with nuclear strikes in UNGA speech

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday accused the United States and Israel of committing a “grave betrayal of diplomacy” by carrying out airstrikes on Iranian cities, telling world leaders at the United Nations that the attacks violated international law and undermined peace efforts.

Speaking in his first address to the U.N. General Assembly, Pezeshkian said the U.S.’s June strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities came as Iran was engaged in diplomatic negotiations, and he warned that such actions threatened to erode the foundations of global stability.

“The aerial assault … constituted a grave betrayal of diplomacy and a subversion of efforts toward the establishment of stability and peace,” the president said. 

“This brazen aggression, in addition to murdering citizens, women, scientists and intellectual elites of my country, inflicted a grievous blow upon the prospect of peace in the region.”

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In June, seven U.S. B-2 bombers dropped 30,000-pound “bunker buster” bombs on Iran’s nuclear sites. The U.S. declared the mission a success, and former President Donald Trump said Iran’s nuclear program was “totally obliterated.”

The president, however, claimed Iran never had intentions to develop a nuclear weapon and only enriched uranium for civil nuclear purposes. 

“We do not seek the weapons. This is our belief based on the edict issued by the Supreme Leader and by religious authorities,” Pezeshkian said. 

“We never sought weapons of mass destruction, nor will we ever seek them.”

He accused Washington and its allies of a double standard, pointing to U.S. support for Israel in Gaza and other regional conflicts, while casting Iran as the victim of aggression that has killed civilians, scientists, and journalists.

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Pezeshkian tied the strikes against Iran to what he described as a broader pattern of Western-backed aggression across the Middle East, citing Israel’s offensive in Gaza as “genocide” and denouncing the “Greater Israel” project as a delusional scheme destabilizing the entire region. He accused the U.S. of enabling Israel’s actions in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, and urged Muslim states to unite in collective defense.

“The world in these two years has witnessed a genocide in Gaza, the destruction of homes in Lebanon, the devastation of Syria’s infrastructure, the assault against the people of Yemen, and the assassination of Iran’s scientists,” Pezeshkian said. 

“All of this under the full support of the most heavily armed regime on the face of the earth, under the pretext of self-defense. Would you countenance such things for yourselves?”

The Iranian leader portrayed his country as resilient in the face of pressure, insisting that military and economic coercion has backfired.

“The patriotic and valiant people of Iran laid bare before the aggressors the fallacy and self-destruction of their arrogant calculations,” he said. “The enemies of Iran unwittingly fortified the sacred national unity. The people of Iran, despite the most severe, protracted and crushing economic sanctions … rise in unison in support of their valiant armed forces.”

Pezeshkian’s remarks also underscored the depth of Iran’s hostility toward Israel. 

He declared that those responsible for targeting children in Gaza “are not worthy of the name human being” and said such crimes prove Israel “shall never prove to be trustworthy partners.”