According to the New York Times, Masoud Pezeshkian has travelled to New York to address the General Assembly, which the paper calls a first for a leader whose country is at war with the United States. The paper also reports that Trump said he faced a choice over whether to "anni...", with the quotation cut off in the text available. Separately, the Times reports that calls to ban US diesel exports are splitting Republicans and that the energy crisis is dominating UN discussions.

This account currently relies on New York Times. We have not independently corroborated it.

The UN General Assembly is one of the few places where leaders of countries in conflict occupy the same building, and the presence of Iran's president there while the fighting continues creates at least the possibility of a channel. The optimistic reading is that travelling to New York signals Tehran wants a way out; the sceptical reading is that a speech costs nothing and changes nothing while the military situation drives events. The reported fight over US diesel exports is a reminder that the conflict is already reaching into fuel prices and domestic politics.

The United States and Iran have had no normal diplomatic relations since the 1979 revolution and the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran, and Washington broke ties in April 1980. The 2015 nuclear agreement briefly eased the standoff, but Trump withdrew the United States from it in 2018 and reimposed sanctions, and a US drone strike killed the Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in January 2020. Masoud Pezeshkian, elected in July 2024 after President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash, campaigned as a relative moderate open to talks with the West. In June 2025 Israel and Iran fought a short, intense war during which American aircraft struck Iranian nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. Iranian leaders have long used the UN podium in New York as a rare direct channel to a global audience, travelling under the host country's obligations to admit delegates to the United Nations.

1. 1979Iranian revolution and the US embassy seizure. The Shah is overthrown and students seize the American embassy in Tehran, holding 52 hostages for 444 days. Source
2. 1980United States breaks relations with Iran. Washington severs diplomatic ties in April 1980; the two governments have had no embassies in each other's capitals since. Source
3. 2015Nuclear agreement signed in Vienna. Iran and six world powers agree to limits on Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief. Source
4. 2018Trump withdraws from the nuclear deal. The United States leaves the agreement in May 2018 and reimposes sweeping sanctions on Iran. Source
5. 2020US strike kills Qassem Soleimani. An American drone strike in Baghdad kills Iran's most prominent military commander, bringing the two countries close to open war. Source
6. 2024Masoud Pezeshkian elected president. After Ebrahim Raisi dies in a helicopter crash, Pezeshkian wins the July 2024 election on a platform of easing tensions with the West. Source
7. 2025Israel, Iran war and US strikes on nuclear sites. During a short war in June 2025, American aircraft strike Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. Source
8. 2026Pezeshkian speaks at the General Assembly. The New York Times reports the Iranian president has come to New York to address world leaders while his country is at war with the United States. Source

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's addresses to the UN General Assembly, 2005 to 2013. An Iranian president travelled to New York during a period of deep hostility with Washington and used the General Assembly podium to speak past the US government to a global audience, prompting walkouts and angry responses.

Where the comparison breaks down: Those visits took place during a sanctions and nuclear standoff, not during an armed conflict between the two countries, and no American president had publicly framed the choice in the terms the New York Times attributes to Trump.

• The Trump quotation in the available text is cut off, so the full threat and its context are not established by the evidence.
• The supplied passages do not describe the nature, scale or current state of the fighting between the United States and Iran.
• What Pezeshkian will say, and whether any meeting or channel with American officials follows, is unknown.
• Whether any ban on US diesel exports is actually proposed, voted on or adopted is not established.

The content of Pezeshkian's speech and any American response to it, and whether the dispute over banning US diesel exports moves from argument to a concrete proposal in Washington.

• New York Times: U.N. Live Updates: Iran’s President to Address World Leaders After Trump Threat · Headline and summary · 23 September 2026
• New York Times: Trump’s Diesel Dilemma · Headline and summary · 23 September 2026

Read the original reporting at the links above. Our analysis can be wrong and may change as evidence develops.

• The Twilight War: The Secret History of America's Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran — David Crist
• All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror — Stephen Kinzer
• Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran, and the Triumph of Diplomacy — Trita Parsi
• Guests of the Ayatollah: The Iran Hostage Crisis — Mark Bowden