Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told the UN General Assembly on September 23 that Tehran was open to negotiations but fully prepared to defend itself.

Opening his address to the 81st session, Pezeshkian held up photographs of Ali Khamenei, Iran's previous supreme leader killed in US-Israeli strikes on February 28, and of children killed when a missile hit a girls' school in Minab, in southern Hormozgan province.

In his speech, he said that the children killed in Minab were innocent, along with teenage girls killed in Lamerd, calling the US and Israel "terrorists" for striking the schools across the country. 

A UN fact-finding mission found on September 17 that the Minab school strike was deliberately targeted and constituted a war crime. Pezeshkian also accused the US of using cluster bombs on teenagers in Lamerd, in Fars province.

Independent investigations have attributed the Lamerd strike to a US missile that scattered tungsten pellets over a sports hall. US Central Command has denied responsibility when questioned.

The speech set out deterrence and diplomacy as a single position. It came as US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held a three-hour meeting with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, after which US President Donald Trump spoke of "a lot of momentum" towards an agreement. Hardliners in Tehran had pressed Pezeshkian to cancel the trip, and senior security figures have since given public backing to talks with Washington.

Pezeshkian said the US and its allies accused Iran of terrorism while committing the worst acts of terrorism themselves. He said Iran had not attacked or invaded any country in 200 years "but defends itself steadfastly", and that the country had to be strong enough that no one could assume an attack on its cities would go unanswered.

He said Iran would not give up its right to the peaceful use of nuclear technology. "Nuclear weapon is in Israel, but IAEA inspectors are racing to come to Iran," he said, referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog. Israel neither confirms nor denies holding nuclear weapons.

Pezeshkian accused the US and its backers of seeking to close Iran's waterways while using the same routes as supply lines. Control of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has been central to the conflict.

"Resistance cannot be defeated by bombs," he said, adding that those who imposed a war on Iran had learnt that Iranians were not afraid of war.

Pezeshkian said Tehran was ready to negotiate but would not accept "the language of bullying", citing Trump's address to the assembly on September 22 as evidence that the US president still relied on threats. No meeting between the two presidents has been scheduled.

He said, "They close access to our own waterway," adding, "Yet they keep supplying deadly missiles to the land surrounding the [Hormuz] waterway," he added.