Pezeshkian rejects Trump’s ‘terrorist’ label, says Iran has only defended itself

TEHRAN; Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Wednesday that the Iranian people had been the “victims of terrorism”, rejecting US President Donald Trump’s description of Iran as “terrorists”. Addressing the UN General Assembly, Pezeshkian displayed images of victims of an American strike on a school in Minab at the start of the war, along with images of a sports hall in Lamerd destroyed by US bombardment. “The United States, by using weapons with multiple warheads, targeted that sports hall. They martyred and assassinated our scientists, our men, women and children. Innocent children who in truth had committed no crimes, no sins,” he said. Pezeshkian stressed that while Iran had responded to strikes by the United States and Israel, it had not targeted civilian areas. “Yes, they did hit us, but we did not bend the knee. We did not bow our head,” he said. “We responded, but we did not hit civilian populations. “They came into surrounding territories and targeted our universities, our healthcare centers, our schools, our hospitals, our infrastructure; all of it against international law,” Pezeshkian added. He also said that Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh had been assassinated in Tehran by Israel on the day of his inauguration as president. “Israel targets any neighborhood in any city in any province, commits assassinations like a true terrorist,” he emphasized. “Those who are terrorists, and train and protect terrorists, describe us as such,” he added. “We have only defended ourselves; we are not terrorists. “In the first part of his speech, the Iranian leader held up an image of the Islamic Republic’s late supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an airstrike on his compound in Tehran on the first day of the US-Israeli assault on Iran. He also held up images of children killed in a strike on a school. A UN fact-finding mission on Iran said earlier this month that it had reasonable grounds to believe that the US was behind two military strikes on a school and a sports facility in Iran, and that these constituted war crimes. Iran needs nuclear energy, not a nuclear bomb, Pezeshkian says Pezeshkian said Iran needs peaceful nuclear energy, not a nuclear bomb. “For our country, peaceful nuclear technology is part of our inherent progress,” he said, adding, “Iran does not accept nuclear technology to be at the exclusive disposal of some, of a handful. “We say it clearly, no nuclear weapons and no limitations to peaceful nuclear technology,” he said Iran threatens to paralyse airports in neighboring countries if they stop Iranian Flights Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Major General Mohsen Rezaei, said in an interview with state TV on Wednesday that if neighboring countries cooperated with ​the United States ‌by stopping Iranian flights, Iran would ensure ​their airports could not function.