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'We will not bow our head,' Iranian president says in UN General Assembly address · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: Now, meanwhile, today it is day two of the UN
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  Speaker 1: General Assembly. Yesterday, U.S. President Donald Trump addressed world leaders.
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  Speaker 1: And just last hour, Iran's president spoke at that same podium.
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  Speaker 1: And he began his speech by refuting Trump's remarks that
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  Speaker 1: were delivered a day earlier. And he painted a picture
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  Speaker 1: of Iran as the victim of this war. He also
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  Speaker 1: layered multiple accusations.
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  Speaker 2: On the U.S.
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  Speaker 1: And Israel. So for more on all of this, let's
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  Speaker 1: bring in the CBC's Willie Lowry. He joins us now
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  Speaker 1: live from Jerusalem. Willie, tell us more about the remarkable
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  Speaker 1: tone that we heard struck by Iran's president.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Arthia, a pretty extraordinary moment at the UN General Assembly.
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  Speaker 2: The mere fact that Massoud Pazeshkian was there speaking in
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  Speaker 2: itself was somewhat historical. This is, experts believe, the first
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  Speaker 2: time that the leader of a country at war with
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  Speaker 2: the United States spoke to the General Assembly on stage.
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  Speaker 2: US soil. And he used the opportunity to really try
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  Speaker 2: and rebuff and refute so much of what the US
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  Speaker 2: has said over the course of the last eight months
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  Speaker 2: and what US President Donald Trump said just yesterday, really
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  Speaker 2: trying to flip or change the narrative. He accused the U.S.
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  Speaker 2: and Israel of being the terrorists, not of Iran. He
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  Speaker 2: said that the U.S. and Israel had attacked a school,
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  Speaker 2: the Minab School. He held up a picture of the school.
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  Speaker 2: the US and Iran of assassinating the former Supreme Leader
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  Speaker 2: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He held up a picture of the
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  Speaker 2: late Supreme Leader while saying that. And then he went
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  Speaker 2: to the subject of nuclear energy, nuclear weapons. He said
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  Speaker 2: that Iran's goal in all of this was merely to
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  Speaker 2: possess nuclear power for progress. Let's take a brief listen
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  Speaker 2: to some of what he had to say there.
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  Speaker 3: We seek energy for progress. For years, they have labeled centrifuges,
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  Speaker 3: international sanctions, other labels when it comes to our nuclear technology.
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  Speaker 3: But for our country, peaceful nuclear technology is part of
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  Speaker 3: our inherent progress. For our sick people is cure and treatment.
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  Speaker 3: For the agricultural sector is food security. For industry is
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  Speaker 3: advancement and progress. and supply of electrical energy. Iran does
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  Speaker 3: not accept for nuclear technology to be at the exclusive
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  Speaker 3: disposal of some, of a handful. We will not bow
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  Speaker 3: our head and give up the right that is inherently ours.
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  Speaker 2: And, Arthiwal, Pozeshkin very much tried to present Iran as
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  Speaker 2: the victim in this conflict. There was a fair amount
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  Speaker 2: of revisionist history there as well, claiming that Iran had
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  Speaker 2: not attacked any of its neighbors in the last 200 years.
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  Speaker 2: Iran certainly has funded and supported many proxies in the region,
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  Speaker 2: including Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, which are currently fighting...
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  Speaker 2: renewed conflict with Saudi Arabia.
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  Speaker 1: And, Willie, to your point as well of noting the
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  Speaker 1: civilian deaths, we should note here that certainly reports show
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  Speaker 1: that there have been thousands of deaths in Iran because
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  Speaker 1: of this war. The number is closer to dozens at
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  Speaker 1: this stage in Israel as a result of this ongoing
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  Speaker 1: conflict between Israel, the U.S., and Iran. We should note, too,
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  Speaker 1: that while Iran's president was speaking... We also heard from
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  Speaker 1: the U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. We know, too,
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  Speaker 1: that there were conversations on the sidelines of the U.N.
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  Speaker 1: yesterday with Iran's foreign affairs minister. So what did the
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  Speaker 1: Secretary of State have to say?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. The timing of this pretty interesting U.S.
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  Speaker 2: Secretary of State Marco Rubio starting to speak with reporters
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  Speaker 2: before Massoud Poseshkin had even finished speaking. But he once
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  Speaker 2: again reiterated that the U.S. would be potentially open to
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  Speaker 2: making a deal, but not just any deal. And he
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  Speaker 2: once again said that Iran could not, must not ever
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  Speaker 2: possess a nuclear weapon. Let's take a brief listen to
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  Speaker 2: some of what he had to say there.
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  Speaker 4: The president's open still to this moment, to making a
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  Speaker 4: deal with Iran that allows Iran to be what it
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  Speaker 4: should be, which is a great and prosperous country. But
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  Speaker 4: if they continue to insist on the desire for a
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  Speaker 4: nuclear weapon, their support for proxies in the region, their
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  Speaker 4: support of terrorism, they're the world's leading sponsor of terrorism,
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  Speaker 4: then we're going to have big problems with them. And
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  Speaker 4: the president has a number of options available to him,
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  Speaker 4: including the ones he's already taken, which is to impose
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  Speaker 4: severe and growing economic costs but he also has some
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  Speaker 4: military options upon which I won't speculate.
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  Speaker 2: So, Arthur, you have this public rhetoric by both U.S.
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  Speaker 2: President Donald Trump and Pozeshkin, very much seemingly at odds. Yet,
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  Speaker 2: as you mentioned, just yesterday, U.S. Special Envoy to the
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  Speaker 2: Middle East Steve Witkoff and the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner,
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  Speaker 2: speaking with the Iranian delegation through intermediaries. Witkoff described those
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  Speaker 2: conversations as positive and hoping that it would lead to progress.
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  Speaker 1: Lots developing. Thank you for keeping track of it all, Willie.
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  Speaker 1: That is the CBC's Willie Lowry in Jerusalem.