Pezeshkian tells Trump that Iran will never 'bend at the knee'

Iran's president struck a defiant tone at the UN on Wednesday where he spoke for the first time since Washington and Israel launched an all-out war on his country, vowing Tehran would never "bend at the knee. "Masoud Pezeshkian accused Washington of "terrorism" for assassinating former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the start of the conflict, insisting Tehran had never started a war.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump had told the UN General Assembly that he was weighing whether to "annihilate" Iran but went on to hail renewed talks between Tehran and Washington's negotiators. Pezeshkian made no reference to the talks to resolve the stalled war in his steely speech.

"(Trump) must know that the resistance of the Iranian people will only increase in the face of sanctions, increased pressure, increased bullying. We will never bow our head or bend at the knee," he said. Pezeshkian insisted Tehran would not allow the Strait of Hormuz, which it has choked off since the start of the war causing global energy prices to spike, to be used as leverage against his country.

"We cannot let some have free access and bolster their interests from the waterway, while at the same time using that waterway to impose their aggression upon us," he said. Pezeshkian's attendance at the UN's signature diplomatic event, in the heart of Manhattan, had been in doubt as it was unclear if the United States would issue a visa. Ultimately Washington granted the permit, but denied visas to several members of Pezeshkian's entourage.

Soaring fuel prices threaten to cost Trump's Republicans their control of Congress in November's midterms, but the US president has sought to dismiss the domestic impact of the war.

AI and Ukraine

Also Wednesday, the future of artificial intelligence came to the fore at the UN's annual gathering of world leaders. Following weeks of worldwide headlines about risks of uncontrollable AI -- and calls for a slowdown -- industry leaders briefed the UN Security Council, calling for heightened vigilance.

"This moment calls for extreme care," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said, while Dario Amodei of Anthropic pledged to slow down where needed to ensure the safety of new AI releases. In his speech Tuesday, Trump rejected international regulation of AI, calling such proposals a "globalist scheme.

"Russia's war against Ukraine also featured at the world body on Wednesday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin of using third-country fighters from 47 countries to continue Moscow's war, which began with a 2022 invasion that has led to four years of bloody conflict.

Zelensky also warned that this winter his forces could seek to target Russian heating and energy facilities to use the region's bitter frost against Russia, as Moscow has done against Ukraine. "Ukrainians understand that this winter could be very harsh for us, but in response we will have no choice but to make it painful for Russia too," he told the UN.

'Never had a woman leading'

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez used his address to the General Assembly to call for a woman from Latin America to lead the United Nations.

"How can an organization that claims to speak on behalf of the whole of humanity, never have had a woman leading" it, Sanchez said, adding that it was also overdue for the third-most populated continent to take the role. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, a former prime minister of Portugal, leaves the post on December 31. Four women and three men are vying to succeed him, including several from Latin America.