The United States delegation to the United Nations was seen storming out of the General Assembly Hall in New York Wednesday as Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian held up images of children who are widely believed to have been killed by U.S. strikes.
On the same day President Donald Trump launched his deeply unpopular war against Iran, the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school was reportedly hit with a “double tap” strike by U.S.-made Tomahawk missiles, killing at least 156 people, including 120 children. Trump initially blamed Iran for the strike before subsequent reporting made clear the United States was likely responsible. A U.S. strike on a sports hall also reportedly killed 22 civilians and damaged a nearby school.
Pezeshkian, addressing the international body behind the same podium where Trump threatened to “annihilate” Iran just a day earlier, did not mince words in his condemnation of the Trump administration.
“Yesterday, the United States president described us as terrorists. We have been the victims of terrorism,” Pezeshkian said, according to the U.N.’s live translator. “I come from an Iran in which our esteemed supreme leader was assassinated without any legal framework or reason; I come from an Iran where in truth, they bombed a school.”
Pezeshkian then began to hold up images of children he said were victims of U.S. strikes.
“You see these children? These children perished under bombs with weapons used by the United States and Israel,” Pezeshkian said.
“They were innocent, had committed no crimes. A sports hall where children were busy playing, the United States, by using weapons with multiple warheads, targeted that sports hall. They martyred, assassinated our scientists, our men, women and children. Innocent children who in truth had committed no crimes, no sins!”
As Pezeshkian continued, the U.S. delegation to the U.N. could be seen exiting the General Assembly Hall, leaving the Iranian president to deliver his remarks to an empty U.S. section.
“Those who are terrorists and train and protect terrorists describe us as such,” Pezeshkian continued. “We have only defended ourselves — we are not terrorists.”