Iran's president told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday that the United States could impose "neither negotiations nor war" on the Islamic Republic amid heightened tension between the longtime foes over Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with major powers.

"Iran is not a bargaining chip in U.S. elections and domestic policy ... Any U.S. administration after the upcoming (U.S.) elections will have no choice but to surrender to the resilience of the Iranian nation," Hassan Rouhani told the annual UN gathering in a video message.

Iran has refused to hold talks with the United States unless Washington lifts sanctions on Tehran and returns to the original agreement. In retaliation for U.S. pressure, Tehran has scaled back compliance with nuclear capacity limits set by the deal.

In his UN address earlier on Tuesday, Trump said: "We withdrew from the terrible Iran nuclear deal and imposed crippling sanctions on the world's leading state sponsor of terror." 

Iran denies supporting terrorism.

The Trump administration on Monday slapped new sanctions on Iran to support the U.S. assertion that all UN sanctions against Tehran that were lifted under the 2015 agreement are now reinstated.

That move was rejected by key European allies as well as Russia and China who are all parties to the nuclear accord.

"This is a victory not just for Iran, but for the global community – during the transitional international order in the post-Western world – that an aspirant to hegemony is humiliated in such self-created isolation," Rouhani said, referring to the Trump administration.

In his address to the General Assembly, French President Emmanuel Macron said the Trump's administration's "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran had so far failed. Macron dismissed U.S. efforts to restore UN sanctions against Tehran as Washington had already left the nuclear deal.

In recent weeks, all parties to the agreement, except for the U.S., have promoted a joint effort to preserve the agreement. Representatives from Iran, Britain, China, France, Russia and Germany held a meeting in early September on the subject and demonstrated their resolve to keep the deal intact.

"All participants reaffirmed the importance of preserving the agreement recalling that it is a key element of the global nuclear non-proliferation architecture, as endorsed by United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231," said Helga Schmid, a European Union official who led the talks, in a later statement.

Saudi Arabia, Iran's longtime regional rival, said on Tuesday that any nuclear deal with Iran has to preserve non-proliferation and continue efforts aimed at making the Middle East a zone free of weapons of mass destruction.

The agreement "has to address Iran's destabilizing behaviors and its sponsorship of terrorism in the region to prevent it from any provocative actions in the future," it said in a statement issued after a weekly cabinet meeting.

(With input from agencies)