When Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian gave his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday and the United States and Israel of ‘Wild Aggression’, thousands of Iranian Americans and dissidents, accused themselves, massaged outside the building to denounce what they called the UN hypocrisy for giving the rulers of Tehran.
In the hall, Pezeshkian claimed that of June American air strikes on those of Iran Nuclear facilities amounted to a “serious betrayal of diplomacy” and a violation of international law. He said that the attacks killed citizens, scientists and intellectuals, while he insisted that Iran “never sought mass destruction weapons.”
However, outside the UN, the message was very different. Protesters waved Iranian flags and holding placards stated that Pezeshkian did not represent the Iranian people.
Iran President accuses us of ‘serious betrayal’ with nuclear strikes in Unga Speech
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian focuses on the 80th General Meeting of the United Nations at the UN headquarters in New York on September 24, 2025. (Jeenah Moon/Reuters)
Samani said she has attended the rally for three decades every year. “I promised myself when I was released from that dungeon that I would be the voice of my friends I lost. That’s why I am here every year.”
Demonstrants gather outside of UN during the speech by Iran President Pezeshkian in 2025 UNGA. (Alireza Jafarzadeh)
He added that the movement supports the plan for a free, secular, democratic republic in Iran: “We ask the US government to put more pressure on the regime and the side of the Iranian people and their desire for democratic change.”
Alireza Jafarzadeh, deputy director of the American office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, called the rally ‘an impressive show in force’.
“Thousands of demonstrators supported the overthrow of the Iranian regime by the Iranian people, without the need for foreign boots or the provision of money and weapons,” he said.
Iran regime escalates the repression to ‘North Korea-style model of insulation and control’
Members of the organization of Iranian American communities (OIAC) and supporters of the Iranian resistance gather on day Hammarskjöld Plaza for the “2025 Free Iran Ny Rally” on September 23, 2025 in New York City. (Stephanie Keith/Getty images)
Jafarzadeh also criticized the UN for giving Tehran a platform despite repeated convictions of her human rights record. “It is terrible to see that the world’s leading executioner plays every role in a UN body that deals with human rights. It is as if you appoint a serial killer as a judge to rule his own murders.”
Richard Goldberg, senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), said that the willingness of the UN to elevate Iran ‘an alternative reality’ reflects.
“The UN is very similar to the Netflix show ‘Stranger Things’. You walk through the door, the characters are the same, but it is a horrible alternative reality where a tyrannics, women-like, nuclear-weapons-pursuen regime can serve as a leader of human rights, female rights and nuclifereing.
He added that Pezeshkian arrived in New York “with nothing – not popular support at home and not a nuclear weapon program to scare the rest of the world”, while they are confronted with threatening UN sanctions that can destabilize Iran’s economy.
Being Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Iran program of FDD, said that the speech was “short but not sweet”.
Demonstrants gather outside of UN during the speech by Iran President Pezeshkian in 2025 UNGA. (Alireza Jafarzadeh)
Taleblu emphasized the irony of Iran’s leadership roles in international organizations: “Can there be something more ironic than the Islamic Republic of Iran, who has long been a proliferator and is looking for a nuclear weapon, a vice president of the IAEA?”
He added that Pezeshkian’s comments were overshadowed by recent comments from supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamei. “While Pezeshkian and [Iranian negotiator Abbas] Araghchi tried to store in NYC and prevent Snapback, Khamenei did not chop words when it came to no negotiations with America. ‘Supreme Leader’ is a title that is meant to be taken quite literally. “
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US President Donald Trump’s Healthy from the Middle East Steve Witkoff said on Wednesday that Washington spoke with Iran and that the US had a “desire” to realize a permanent solution for the dispute. But the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran told Reuters on Thursday that the US said it wanted a diplomatic solution for Iran’s nuclear program, was a “deception”.
“The claim of America about a desire for diplomacy is nothing but cheating and flagrant contradiction; one cannot bomb a country at the same time while you are experiencing diplomatic negotiations and talk about diplomacy,” said ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei.
