Iran live updates: Iranian president pushes back at Trump during UN speech

After President Donald Trump threatened to “annihilate” Iran during his speech at the U.N. General Assembly, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian got the chance to respond from the same podium Wednesday morning, where he was critical of both the U.S. and Israel.

“Yesterday, the United States president described us as terrorists. We have been victims of terrorism,” he began.

He held up photos of children in a classroom and memorial sites, referencing strikes on the Minab school and a sports hall in Lamerd—two attacks a U.N.-backed report recently said could amount to war crimes committed by the U.S.

“You see these children? These children perished under bombs, with weapons used by the United States and Israel. They were innocent,” he said. “We have only defended ourselves. We are not terrorists.”

As he spoke, the lone American diplomat who had been sitting in the U.S. section of the audience walked out of the hall.

Pezeshkian dismissed concerns about Iran’s nuclear program, insisting it was for purely peaceful purposes.

“We will not bow our head and give up the right that is inherently ours. We say it clearly: no nuclear weapons and no limitations to peaceful nuclear technology. Our peace will not come in the field of battle, but they must give the needed security to the people and nation of Iran,” he said.

He also addressed the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, claiming Iran wanted to have good relationships with other countries in the region but that “we cannot let some have free access” to the waterway if they were using it “to impose aggression.”

-ABC News’ Shannon Kingston