Iran rejects Trump's annihilation threat, insists on diplomacy

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told the UN General Assembly on Wednesday that Tehran will never surrender to the US but remains open to diplomacy, responding to President Donald Trump's threat to "annihilate" Iran the previous day. The speeches bookended the first indirect US-Iran talks in months, held through Qatari mediators, which produced no public concessions. Pezeshkian defended Iran's military actions as defensive and insisted Tehran is not seeking nuclear weapons, while also threatening retaliation against neighbors enforcing new US sanctions on Iranian aircraft. The diplomatic contact drew backlash from Iranian hardliners, who criticized the delegation's engagement with US envoys. Oil prices held near two-week lows amid the diplomatic opening, though the nearly seven-month war has killed thousands and disrupted global energy supplies, with a third of Gulf oil estimated missing from markets.