'We Will Never Bow': Pezeshkian Answers Trump, and Oil Jumps 3.5%
Iran’s president told the General Assembly his country would not surrender but still believes in diplomacy, a day after Mr Trump threatened from the same podium to annihilate the Islamic Republic. He held up photographs of the assassinated supreme leader Ali Khamenei and of the more than 150 Iranian schoolchildren killed in the war’s first days — “We are not terrorists” — as the American delegate walked out. On the strait: “It cannot be the case that everyone benefits from the Strait of Hormuz while we are denied access to shipping through this waterway.” Brent, below $100 this morning, closed the London day near $102.70.
The duelling speeches bookended Tuesday’s shuttle talks, and the market has now read the result: no concessions from either side in public, so the war premium came straight back. Two things hardened today. American secondary sanctions intended to ground Iranian civilian aircraft worldwide bite from this evening, and Mohsen Rezaei of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council told state television that Tehran would ensure neighbouring countries’ airports could not function if they turn Iranian flights away — a threat aimed squarely at the Gulf states hosting the diplomacy. Hardline Iranian media have begun attacking the contacts themselves. Watch whether the promised second round survives the backlash in Tehran.