Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed Wednesday to “never bow before aggressors,” as his country faces snapback sanctions over its nuclear program and is still reeling from Israeli and US bombings during the 12-day war in June.

Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Pezeshkian denied Tehran was seeking nuclear arms, and he slammed “the Zionist regime” over the war in Gaza, as did leaders from Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco and Spain.

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun, meanwhile, demanded that Israel cease its strikes and military presence in his country, while Spain’s King Felipe VI claimed pride in the legacy of the Jews his country banished in 1492 as he accused Israeli forces of atrocities in Gaza.

Pezeshkian, in his speech, denounced the “aerial assaults of the Zionist regime and the United States of America against Iran’s cities, homes and infrastructures precisely at a time when we were treading the path of diplomatic negotiations.”

It “constituted a grave betrayal of diplomacy and a subversion of efforts towards the establishment of stability and peace,” he said. “This brazen act of aggression, in addition to monitoring a number of commanders, citizens, children, women, scientists and intellectual elites of my country, inflicted a grievous blow upon international trust and the very prospect of peace in the region. Should we fail to confront such perilous breaches of international norms?”

Pezeshkian’s address to the high-level forum in New York was his first appearance there since the June war, which began with a surprise Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear program, missile production facilities and military leadership. Iran responded with drone attacks and deadly missile launches.

The war, which abruptly ended weeks-long US-Iran nuclear talks, ended with a US-brokered ceasefire on June 24, two days after the US struck three key Iranian nuclear sites.

Iran’s leaders are publicly sworn to destroy Israel and back a so-called Axis of Resistance regional network of anti-Israel proxies, including Gaza’s Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Israel has said its June 13 strike on Iran came after the Islamic Republic had taken imminent steps toward nuclear weaponization.

While Iran publicly denies seeking nuclear arms, it has enriched uranium to a level far beyond what is needed for civilian use and a short step away from weapons-grade. The US had demanded in the nuclear talks that Iran give up its enrichment capacities altogether — a demand Tehran rejected.

Speaking at the UN, Pezeshkian said the Islamic Republic was religiously barred from procuring nuclear arms.

“We do not seek nuclear weapons. This is our belief, based on the edict issued by the supreme leader and by religious authorities,” he said.

Iran had been subject to harsh UN sanctions over its nuclear program until a landmark 2015 deal between Iran and world powers.

The US withdrew from the deal in 2018, and the three signatory European nations — France, Germany and Britain — have triggered the deal’s “snapback” mechanism to reimpose the sanctions, accusing Iran of non-compliance. The UN Security Council last week nixed a resolution that sought to block the sanctions being reimposed.

In his speech, Pezeshkian repeatedly accused Israel of genocide in Gaza — a charge Israel has rejected. “At the very least,” Pezeskian said, “over 35,000 innocent civilians in Gaza.”

The figure appeared to refer to the........

© The Times of Israel