NEW YORK, USA — Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday, September 24, 2025, told world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly that his country has never sought to build a nuclear bomb, while condemning recent United States military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
“The bedrock of all divine religions and of the human conscience is this golden maxim: that which you would not approve for yourself, do not approve for others,” Pezeshkian said, stressing that Iran had no intention of pursuing nuclear weapons.
The president’s remarks followed US air strikes in June on nuclear sites in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, which President Donald Trump said were intended to weaken the region’s nuclear capacity.
Iran responded by launching missiles at American forces stationed at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
Pezeshkian described the attacks as “savage aggression in flagrant contravention of the most elementary principles of international law,” adding that they came “precisely at a time when we were treading the path of diplomatic negotiations and constituted a grave betrayal of diplomacy and a subversion of efforts towards the establishment of stability and peace.”
He warned that without firm international action, “such perilous breaches of international norms” could recur elsewhere.
In his address, Pezeshkian criticised what he called “the ludicrous and delusional scheme of a Greater Israel,” which he argued was designed to impose “genocide, destruction and instability” across the Middle East.
Instead, he said Iran sought a strong and cooperative region where peace would prevail.
“In such a strong region, slaughter and bloodshed shall find no place,” he said.
The Iranian leader emphasised his country’s long-standing position in favour of nuclear disarmament and a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction.
“For many years [Iran has been] among the staunchest advocates of establishing a region free of weapons of mass destruction,” Pezeshkian said.
He accused nuclear-armed nations of hypocrisy, stating that “those who themselves possess the largest nuclear arsenals and who, in flagrant breach of the NPT, make their weapons even deadlier and more destructive have for years subjected our people to pressures on the basis of spurious allegations.”
Pezeshkian’s speech came less than a week after he addressed the UN Security Council, where members rejected a resolution to lift sanctions imposed on Iran prior to the 2015 nuclear agreement.
He argued that continued sanctions undermine diplomacy and place unfair burdens on ordinary Iranians.
“We come not to escalate tensions, but to remind the world that peace, security and justice cannot thrive on double standards,” he said.
