Iranian president to attend UNGA session amid rising tensions with US

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian will attend the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, the official news agency IRNA reported.

The announcement was made by Habibollah Abbasi, director general of public relations at the Iranian president's office, in an interview with IRNA published on Monday.

Abbasi said Pezeshkian will deliver a speech at the UNGA's session and hold meetings with other participating countries' leaders and officials during the trip.

The US government had refrained from issuing visas to some members of the Iranian delegation, including those of the president's media team, he said.

The 81st session of the UNGA opened on September 8, while the general debate will begin from September 22 at UN Headquarters in New York and continue through September 26 and on September 28.

Pezeshkian's planned visit comes amid heightened tensions between Iran and the US, with Iranian officials warning of a strong response to any further military action against the country.

Iran will definitely change the "geography" of the war with the United States and Israel if it comes under another "invasion," Hossein Mohebbi, spokesperson of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has said.

"If another invasion is launched (against Iran), there will be significant changes in our defense and offense ... We will definitely change the war's geography," Mohebbi said in an interview with Iran's Al-Alam news channel published Sunday night.

"We will certainly introduce new weapons with new capabilities into the fray, and the world will be astonished," Mohebbi said. "We have new targets that have not been attacked yet."

Mohebbi emphasized that the war has not ended yet, and the IRGC has prepared itself for a long-term conflict.

Meanwhile, the General Staff of Iran's Armed Forces on Monday vowed "more defeats" for the United States, Israel and their allies.

"Iran's armed forces will not back down in the face of the enemy and will give the aggressors and ill-wishers, especially the US and Israeli enemies and their allies, the bitter taste of more defeats," it said in a statement.

The IRGC announced on Monday that its aerospace division's air defense shot down a US MQ-1 Predator drone over the Strait of Hormuz earlier in the day, according to Iranian media.

The IRGC said the drone was brought down by its new advanced aerospace air defense system, operating as part of Iran's integrated air defense network, the semi-official Mehr News Agency reported.

The force claimed Washington had returned the MQ-1 to service after suffering heavy losses among its MQ-9 fleet.

It said the MQ-1, known as the "Beast of Kandahar" after logging about 20,000 flight hours over Afghanistan, had been retired from US military service and replaced by the MQ-9.

After the destruction of a large portion of the MQ-9 fleet, the US has been forced to use this drone, the IRGC said.