Iran's president says Tehran will not surrender in war with US, but believes in diplomacy

Reuters. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday (September 23), that Tehran would never surrender to the US but still believed in diplomacy.

His comments came a day after US President Donald Trump used the same forum to threaten to "annihilate" Iran.

The duelling speeches at the annual UN General Assembly in New York bookended the first shuttle talks between the United States and Iran for months, which appeared to have yielded no concessions in the public stance of either side towards ending the Middle East war.

The annual UN gathering in New York provided the occasion on Tuesday (September 22) ⁠for Iranian and U.S. officials to hold their first known indirect talks since a ceasefire collapsed in July, with Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner communicating through mediators on the sidelines.

The war, launched by Trump in February alongside Israel as "Operation Epic Fury", has lasted nearly seven months, killing thousands of people, disrupting global energy supplies and spreading to other countries in the region — ⁠particularly to Lebanon and more recently to Yemen.