Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian opened his address to the 81st United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York on Friday, 25 September 2026 with a direct rebuttal to U.S.

President Donald Trump, who a day earlier had branded Iran the number one sponsor of terror, according to UN News. Pezeshkian argued that Iran’s nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes: “For our sick people it is cure and treatment, for the agricultural sector it is food security, for industries it is advancement and progress,” he said, according to UN News.