Iran’s President tells Trump that Tehran will never ‘bend at the knee’

NEW YORK – Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian struck a defiant tone at the UN on Sept 23 where he spoke for the first time since Washington and Israel launched an all-out war on his country in late February, vowing that Tehran would never “bend at the knee”.

Pezeshkian accused Washington of “terrorism” for assassinating former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the start of the conflict, insisting Tehran had never started a war.

On Sept 22, US 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.

In his steely speech, Pezeshkian made no reference to the talks to resolve the stalled war.

“(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 choked off since the start of the war, causing global energy prices to spike, to be used as leverage 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.

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 his entourage.

Soaring fuel prices threaten to cost Trump’s Republicans their control of Congress in November’s midterms, but the US President has sought to dismiss the domestic impact of the war.

AI and Ukraine

Also on Sept 23, the future of artificial intelligence came to the fore at the UN’s annual gathering of world leaders.

Following weeks of worldwide headlines about the risks of uncontrollable artificial intelligence – and calls for a slowdown – industry leaders briefed the UN Security Council, calling for heightened vigilance.

“This moment calls for extreme care,” OpenAI chief executive officer Sam Altman said, while Anthropic’s Dario Amodei pledged to slow down where needed to ensure the safety of new AI releases.

In his speech on Sept 22, Trump rejected international regulation of AI, calling such proposals a “globalist scheme”.

Russia’s war against Ukraine also featured at the world body on Sept 23.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin of using third-country fighters from 47 countries to continue Moscow’s war, which began with a 2022 invasion that has led to four years of bloody conflict.

Zelensky also warned that this winter, his forces could seek to target Russian heating and energy facilities to use the region’s bitter frost against Russia, as Moscow has done against Ukraine.

“Ukrainians understand that this winter could be very harsh for us, but in response, we will have no choice but to make it painful for Russia, too,” he told the UN.

‘Never had a woman leading’

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez used his address to the General Assembly to call for a woman from Latin America to lead the United Nations.

“How can an organisation that claims to speak on behalf of the whole of humanity, never have had a woman leading” it, Sanchez said, adding that it was also overdue for the third-most populated continent to take the role.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, a former prime minister of Portugal, leaves the post on Dec 31.

Four women and three men are vying to succeed him, including several from Latin America. AFP