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Pezeshkian: US-Israeli aggression ‘grave betrayal of diplomacy’
President warns of bad precedents if world fails to oppose norms violations
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian called the US-Israeli aggression against Iran in June a “grave betrayal of diplomacy” and the weakening of efforts to establish stability and peace in the West Asia region.
He made the remarks during his speech at the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday.
Standing at the General Assembly rostrum, Pezeshkian showed pictures of people killed in the Israeli military campaign against Iran, which killed nearly 1,100 people.
Pezeshkian said that Iran was subjected to a “brutal attack in violation of the fundamental principles of international law” by the Israeli regime and the United States while holding talks with Washington to resolve a decades-old dispute over its nuclear program.
“The airstrikes by the Zionist regime and the United States on cities, homes, and infrastructure in Iran — at the very time we were taking steps toward diplomatic negotiations — were a grave betrayal of diplomacy and a weakening of efforts to establish stability and peace.”
Pezeshkian said the strikes killed commanders, women, children, scientists, and national elites, while also damaging internationally-monitored nuclear facilities.
Heavy blow to int’l trust
He noted that the strikes constitute “a black record of crimes” carried out under the pretext of preserving regional security, which dealt a heavy blow to international trust and the prospect of peace in the West Asia region.
“Assassination of state officials, systematic targeting of journalists, and the killing of individuals solely because of their knowledge and expertise are flagrant violations of human rights and international law,” the Iranian president told delegates from around the globe.
The Iranian president warned of establishment of bad precedents across the world if countries do not stand up to “these dangerous violations of norms.”
Iran not seeking nukes
The Iranian president also touched upon a dispute with the West over its nuclear program, saying that, “I hereby declare once more before this assembly that Iran has never sought and will never seek to build a nuclear bomb."
"The one who is disturbing peace and stability in the region is Israel, but Iran is the one that gets punished," he said.
Iran has long contended that it is not seeking nuclear weapons and US intelligence has not concluded that the country has decided to build a nuclear weapon.
But Israel, the United States and European countries have long been skeptical due to the country's advanced nuclear activities, believing that the Islamic Republic could quickly pursue a bomb if it so decided.
Britain, France and Germany have moved to reimpose UN sanctions that had been suspended under a 2015 nuclear deal that was negotiated by the United States and then torn up by US President Donald Trump.
The sanctions are set to go into effect on Saturday. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met Tuesday with his European counterparts, leading to no clear headway other than an agreement to keep talking.
Pezeshkian accused the Europeans of bad faith, saying that Iran's lack of cooperation was in response to Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
"They falsely presented themselves as parties of good standing to the agreement, and they disparaged Iran's sincere efforts as insufficient," Pezeshkian said.
"All of this was in pursuit of nothing less than the destruction of the very JCPOA which they themselves had once held as a foremost achievement."
On Tuesday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei also rejected Washington’s demands over nuclear negotiations, saying that accepting talks under threat is something “no honorable nation would ever do, and no wise statesman would ever endorse.”
Ayatollah Khamenei said negotiations with Washington under the current circumstances would bring “no benefit” to Iran and instead inflict “serious and possibly irreparable harms.”
Ayatollah Khamenei said the United States is predetermining the outcome of any dialogue, and that Washington’s demands amount to dictation rather than negotiation.
“They have announced that the only acceptable result of negotiations is the shutdown of Iran’s nuclear activities and enrichment. So, we would sit at the table, and the outcome of the talks would be exactly what they had dictated in advance.”
“That is not negotiation,” the Leader stated, “that is dictation, that is imposition.”
“To negotiate with a party where the result must necessarily be what they want, and what they say; is that negotiation?”
The Leader pointed to recent American calls for Iran to abandon not only long-range but even short-range missiles.