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## Overview Masoud Pezeshkian is the President of Iran. In September 2026, he met with the crown prince of Abu Dhabi on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in New Delhi, marking the highest-level meeting between Iran and the UAE since the Iran war began (SCMP, September 12). ## Recent Activity Pezeshkian's meeting with UAE leadership occurred amid widening regional fallout from the Iran war, including a Saudi pipeline attack that heightened oil-supply concerns (SCMP, September 12). His attendance at the BRICS summit places him among leaders navigating both Iran's wartime diplomatic isolation and its relationships within the BRICS bloc. At the BRICS summit's closing in New Delhi, Pezeshkian appeared alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a group photograph described as symbolically significant for the 11-nation bloc, which now spans four continents and represents nearly half the world's population (SCMP, September 14). UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres also attended the summit (SCMP, September 14). The summit's broader focus was on BRICS leaders hedging against, rather than revolting against, US dollar dominance (SCMP, September 14). On September 22, Pezeshkian met in Tehran with Pakistan's interior minister Mohsin Naqvi, as tensions between Iran and the US continued to rise (Al Jazeera, September 22). The visit was Naqvi's sixth trip to Tehran, and comes as Islamabad and Doha separately seek to revive diplomacy with Washington (Al Jazeera, September 22). On September 23, Pezeshkian arrived in New York for the UN General Assembly, with the US-Iran war still ongoing (Al Jazeera, September 23). In his address to the 193-member UN General Assembly that day, Pezeshkian accused Donald Trump of a "bullying mentality," saying Iran would not surrender in the war but remained open to diplomacy to end the conflict (SCMP, September 23). He rejected Trump's warning that the US could annihilate Iran if no deal were reached, saying threats would only harden Iran's resolve (SCMP, September 23). On September 25, Pezeshkian said Iran wants to return to a memorandum of understanding it had agreed with the United States in June, and welcomed China's support for reviving that deal (Arab News, September 25). On September 26, in an interview with Al Jazeera, Pezeshkian said Iran "no longer trusts talks with Washington," and stated that Qatar and Pakistan are relaying Tehran's messages to the US (Al Jazeera, September 26). This appears to sit in tension with his September 25 openness to reviving the US memorandum, suggesting Iran is pursuing indirect, third-party-mediated communication with Washington rather than direct trust-based talks. On October 5, Pezeshkian escalated his rhetoric further, calling negotiations with the US "meaningless," according to Iranian state media (Arab News, October 5). He said talks have so far been followed by renewed American attacks three times, stating: "So far, they have attacked us three times after talks, and this shows that they are not seeking dialogue; rather, their goal is to overthrow the Islamic Republic of Iran" (Arab News, October 5). He characterized the US as an enemy that "every day resorts to assassination, sanctions, pressure" (Arab News, October 5). This marks a further hardening from his September 26 statement of distrust, now explicitly dismissing the value of talks altogether and accusing Washington of seeking regime change rather than a negotiated settlement. ## Why It Matters As Iran's head of state during an active war with the US and its allies, Pezeshkian's diplomatic movements — including outreach to Gulf states, his visible participation in BRICS leadership circles, repeated engagement with Pakistani officials, and his appearance and defiant wartime speech at UNGA in New York — are closely watched indicators of potential de-escalation or realignment in the region, as well as Iran's continued integration into non-Western economic and diplomatic structures. His travel to New York despite the ongoing war, paired with his stated openness to diplomacy even while rejecting Trump's threats, suggested Iran was simultaneously projecting defiance and signaling a willingness to negotiate an end to the conflict. His statement seeking to revive a June memorandum with the US, with China's backing, indicated a more concrete diplomatic track may have been forming behind the public defiance. However, his subsequent declaration that Iran "no longer trusts talks with Washington," and now his October 5 characterization of talks as "meaningless" and accusation that the US seeks to overthrow the Islamic Republic, mark a clear hardening trajectory — moving from conditional openness, to indirect-channel distrust, to outright rejection of negotiation as a strategy. This progression suggests the diplomatic track that appeared to be forming in late September has stalled or collapsed, with Pezeshkian now framing continued US hostility (sanctions, assassination attempts, military strikes) as evidence that Washington's actual goal is regime change rather than a deal, which has significant implications for prospects of near-term de-escalation.