The foundation of a better world is justice. All of the hopes and aspirations of humankind are built on justice. Humans have the capacity to create a framework of all-encompassing justice, which means eliminating injustice. The Islamic Republic of Iran defends the fight against injustice in all of its forms — against humankind, against spirituality, against the Almighty and against the people of the world — wherever it appears.
The desire to be closer to the Creator and the Creator’s teachings exists in all humankind, and we have witnessed a willingness to change in revolutions throughout the history of humankind. Although many movements have never matured into revolution and many revolutions have deviated from their original path, the success of many people and nations, such as the nation of Iran in realizing its aspiration for an Islamic revolution, has strengthened such aspirations in the hearts of people around the world. The Islamic revolution of Iran was the result of Iranians’ drive for justice and fairness. Despite the many conspiracies that Iran has faced over the decades, it has been able to safeguard itself. As a first step, and based on an advanced social and organizational order, the Islamic Republic of Iran was created in order to ensure justice internally and bring to the world a message of justice and fairness. Spirituality and multilateralism were key components in that path.
I am grateful and honoured to be the representative of a people and a nation who are the inheritors of a great civilization that has been free for millennia and has always managed to defeat the plots of the enemies who sought to conquer it — a nation that has always seen oppression as an existential enemy and has always fought to eradicate enslavement, from the Babylonians all the way to the Palestinians. We believe in a common fate for humankind, and we support universal justice. What we seek for ourselves, we wish for others, and what we do not wish for ourselves, we do not impose on others. The nation of Iran believes that justice leads to unity and cohesion and warfare leads to destruction. A country that wants to have justice within its own territory, but then creates or trains terrorist groups and unleashes them on other nations outside its borders should be ashamed before humankind and ashamed in the face of the principles of freedom, justice and fairness. Humanity does not belong only to certain parts of the world.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, drawing inspiration from its Constitution and the spiritual values on which it is based, sees the protection of human rights as one of the most effective ways to ensure and contribute to the protection of the rights of all oppressed people across the globe and considers it one of its inherent duties. The Islamic Republic of Iran rejects the double standards of some Governments vis-a-vis human rights and sees them as a major factor rendering the subject of human rights banal in the eyes of many. In Iran there has been much discussion of the death of dozens of innocent women in a Western country, and as long as there are such double standards, where attention is focused solely on one party rather than on all of us, equally, we will not have true justice and fairness.
Human rights belong to everyone, but they are unfortunately trampled on by many Governments, as was shown by the recent discovery in a Canadian school of mass graves containing the bodies of hundreds of children of the native tribes of Canada and as is evidenced with regard to the rights of the Palestinians, the right to life of people whose lands are occupied, those who have fallen victim to terrorism and those who seek freedom and refuge only to see their children locked up in cages. All of that shows that who is accused and who the accuser must not be judged solely based on the representations of some. The right to claim to be protectors of human rights needs to be founded on something, which many lack these days. With regard to the savagery and crimes of Da’esh, which enslaved Christian, Yazidi and other religious minorities, women and children, it has been clear from our attempts to combat them that we have been defenders of human rights and that those who defended and promoted Da’esh are on the side of the accused.
Today we are witnessing a change in the world order away from a unilateral world, a hegemonic world, a world in which financial power controls the standards of behaviour, a world where criminal and oppressive sanctions are imposed on nations and international organizations are used as tools of oppression in exerting pressure on defenceless nations, in other words, a world completely lacking in justice and fairness. Support for that order among the world’s peoples and nations has been lost. A new order has taken shape and will undoubtedly be realized. From Lebanon to the occupied territories of Palestine and across our region we see the defeated policies of that outdated system. We see terrorism, we see native cultures and religions trampled on, we see unilateral actions and unjust opposition to multilateralism. All of that has created great obstacles to human progress.
We firmly believe that in order to address both old challenges and new contexts, we have no choice but to choose a path of cohesiveness and unity, on a basis of multilateralism, justice, shared human values and divine teachings. There is no other path. We believe that the hearts of all freedom-seeking nations are wedded to those deep-seated values, and their defence against oppressors throughout the world rests on our shoulders. What we are seeking are the rights of the Iranian people and nation. We will not tolerate any relationship based on oppression. We will stand firm and proudly defend our rights. We believe that any oppression is an act against peace and stability, which is a threat to the entire world.
Achieving global security through any path other than justice cannot be sustainable or lasting. That is therefore precisely what we expect the United Nations to support and pursue. Of course, implementing justice and fairness is enormously challenging and difficult, and perhaps it is for that reason that many who claim to be on the side of peace run away from the responsibilities of peace. To them we say, “If you do not wish to shoulder the burden, do you not even wish to shoulder the burden of fighting oppression?”
Our belief is deeply rooted in the Qur’anic culture, which instructs us to oppress no one, and the fate of many nations is dependent on exactly those principles. When we consider nations that flee the logic of character, fairness and justice and run towards unilateralism and oppressive power; nations that lack reason and rely on coups d’etat, military interventionism and boots on the ground; nations that fight terrorism and many other injustices selectively or nations that use nuclear weapons, we can ask if that brought the world closer to fairness, justice and peace or did it rather become a basis for hegemony. What human value has the killing
of hundreds of thousands of Yemeni, Iraqi, Syrian and Afghan children served? Were those not the evil faces of the total lack of justice and fairness in many parts of the world? And in reality, what is it that the Islamic Republic of Iran seeks that has caused havoc and chaos among the oppressors of the world? Is it not the exercise of its own logical and just right?
A willingness to support hegemony has become a sore point for humankind around the world and poses a serious threat. Increasingly, nations around the world wish to achieve justice and independence while also enjoying security. The realization of the doctrine of resistance shows how sincerely and deeply many people wish to achieve true justice, while unilateralism has been used to hold many countries back on a selective basis. The United States cannot accept that certain countries have the right to stand on their own two feet, and it continues to confuse militarism with security. The situation of America’s allies is no better. What is occurring today in Europe is a mirror image of what has occurred in Western Asia over the past few decades. The conduct and the result of moving troops throughout those regions have yielded the same results, and the fate of many countries has shown that America has pursued its own interests at the expense of many others.
The Islamic revolution in Iran was the beginning of the push of the great nation of Iran to seek its own place in the world. For decades we have confronted foreign plots such as coups d’etat, oppressive sanctions and hegemonic interventions. None of Iran’s successes have been acceptable to the great Powers. Some 40 years ago, the late President of the Islamic revolution Mohammad-Ali Rajai placed his feet, whose soles had been savagely tortured, upon a rostrum in the Security Council Chamber and showed the scars of the torture he had been subjected to at the hands of the Shah’s secret police (see S/PV.2251 (1980)). He was later martyred by the hypocrites. A decade later, the late Imam Khomeini ensured that Iran was able to repel foreign aggression against its territory and take charge of its own destiny. The people of Iran who were themselves victims of terrorism have today become supporters who can be counted on in the fight against terrorism throughout the region.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has spent much capital to achieve its objectives — from the time when Saddam Hussein tore up the Algiers Agreement and attacked our country unprovoked, to the time when the American Government trampled on the nuclear agreement and, we saw a new phase of crimes committed against humankind. Some time ago, the former President of the United States announced that it was the United States that created Da’esh. For us, it makes no difference which American Administration created Da’esh. What matters is that a Government on the other side of the planet decided to bring havoc and chaos to our region at the expense of the lives and blood of women and children and innocents. Nonetheless, the Islamic Republic resistance put an end to that destructive movement. And the leader who emerged in the fight against terrorism was none other than our beloved late martyr Qasem Soleimani — a seeker after freedom who became a martyr on the path to obtaining freedom for the nations of our region. And the previous President of the United States of America effectively signed off on that savage, illegal and immoral crime. What he said essentially showed that the oppression that was imposed on the nations of the region had managed to heal some of the hearts that were broken by that crime.
We will not waver in our pursuit of justice in the face of the crime that the American President admitted to having signed off on. We will pursue justice through a fair tribunal for those who martyred our beloved General Qasem Soleimani.
The history of Iran is the history of a nation that has learned to stand on its own two feet and not to depend on anyone else. Iran learned that lesson when in both world wars it declared its neutrality, yet in both wars was subject to foreign occupation. Afterwards, when it approached the United States in the 1950s and relied on it to achieve Iran’s dream of nationalizing its oil industry, it was betrayed again. Even the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was signed and accepted in the framework of the Security Council, was unilaterally trampled on.
Iran has learned the policy of resistance and progress, which it has focused on pursuing because of an advanced and logical social order through which the Islamic Republic of Iran today, despite the oppressive sanctions imposed on it, has become a strong country and has achieved many impressive goals in the fields of technology, know-how and expertise. We believe that the world today needs a strong Iran that is able to export other products in addition to oil and gas.
We have distribution networks throughout our vast nation in electricity, knowledge-seeking, biosciences, nanotechnology and nuclear sciences. We are at the cutting edge, and Iran’s growth in those sectors is considerable. A good example of our social endeavours was when we sought to bring universal health-care coverage to 85 million people, which showed that the pursuit of the will of the people is a foundation of the system of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In contrast, during the times of the imposed war of Iraq against Iran, we were even prevented from being able to purchase barbed wire, but today we have been able to manufacture, through our own know-how and capabilities, the most modern systems to defend our nation.
Our enemies did not retreat, rather our nation managed to drive all of its enemies out of the arena by participating in an impressive and unprecedented fashion in the Islamic revolution in order to strengthen the values of faith and divine will, as well as the policy of good-neighbourly relations. Progress in economic and trade relations have now been brought to the forefront of the Islamic Republic’s foreign policy.
We would like to have extensive relations with all nations throughout the world, particularly with our neighbours. War is not the solution to crises. Dialogue, conversations and negotiations are the true solutions.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, as a powerful country in the region, has a visible presence and is willing to solve crises. During the past few years, Iran’s trade in its region increased at an impressive rate. We have now entered with our neighbours into a new era of the expansion of friendly, neighbourly and brotherly ties, which brings stability and security to all sides.
During the hard times of our neighbouring countries, we showed that we were their true friends. During the numerous conversations I have had with regional leaders, one of the main points raised was that regional security must be born from within and not from the outside. The way to realize that is through collaboration and cooperation, not by forming opposing blocs. We must rely on brotherly and friendly relations. If we leave nations and the regions in charge of their own destinies, then the occupiers will leave and neighbours will remain supportive of one another in eternity.
In the not-too-distant past, we saw the fires of war burning between the two brotherly nations of Iraq and Iran, because of the encouragement of enemy Powers throughout the world. Today we see the Arba’een pilgrimage in observation of the fortieth day of the martyrdom of Imam Hussain, which is celebrated in order to renew our faith in those values and to respect the descendants of the Prophet, who gave their lives for human dignity and human values.
I would like to direct the General Assembly’s attention to one of the most egregious points that shows the oppressive Powers present in the region. The region has not previously had such an occupying Power as savage as the Zionist regime. The killing of women and children is recorded in the dark report card of the Zionist regime, which has managed to build the biggest prison in the world in Gaza. The illegal expansion of settlements and housing on Palestinian territories and farms and the killing of their children and their new generations shows everyone that seven decades of Israeli occupation and brutality are still with us and not coming to an end.
But the global Powers must show why they keep running away and evading the solutions proposed by the Islamic Republic of Iran to resolve the Palestinian crisis. The entire Palestinian territory, from the mountains to the sea, needs only one solution — allowing the votes of all Palestinians, including Muslims, Christians and Jews, in a comprehensive referendum. The occupying Zionist Power, which has occupied Jerusalem and occupies other lands in the region, cannot be a partner for security and stability.
Allow me to draw Assembly members’ attention to another example of the lack of justice and fairness, namely, the double standards used when speaking of the nuclear science capacities of the Islamic Republic of Iran. And we all know that it is for only human and peaceful endeavours, but some countries are keen on portraying that as a threat in order to sweep under the rug what they should rightly face themselves, namely, denuclearization.
As the leader of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, I announce that the Islamic Republic of Iran is not seeking to build or obtain nuclear weapons, and such weapons have no place in our doctrine. That has been issued as an official fatwa announced by His Eminence Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and a Sharia- based fatwa issued by His Eminence is worth more than any measures with any outside or international agencies.
All of this is taking place in an environment where countries that seek to portray us, unjustly, as a threat keep pursuing nuclear-weapon development and testing and have made a gift of those weapons of mass destruction to the Zionist Government. In doing so, the Governments that must be disarmed are rewarded, but those that are observing proper frameworks are even threatened by measures under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. And despite the fact that it accounts for only 2 per cent of nuclear activities worldwide, Iran has been the subject of 35 per cent of nuclear inspections.
I therefore ask all those here today to please listen carefully to the following points.
First, the Islamic Republic of Iran, in good faith, accepted an agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in 2015 and lived up to all of its commitments, without exception, in the first phase, but the result was America trampling upon that agreement. As they themselves said, in so many words, there were unprecedented oppressive sanctions measures imposed on the people of Iran as punishment for being freedom seekers. A weapon of mass destruction — that is what sanctions are. And abiding by, or cooperating in, the implementation of the same is helping oppression take root.
Secondly, it was America that trampled upon and left the agreement, not Iran. The International Atomic Energy Agency issued 15 different reports stating specifically that Iran had fully complied with all of its commitments.
Thirdly, while we have paid the price for having lived up to our commitments, Iran has not been given the opportunity to reap the rewards and rights of the agreement, due to the United States, in cooperation with Europe, trampling upon that agreement.
We gave ample opportunities for those who trampled upon and left the agreement to return to it. We have been extremely flexible, and had it not been for our flexibility, the negotiations would have stopped in the very first few days. Iran’s logic of negotiations is a just analysis of what is going on, and our wish is only one thing — that commitments be honoured.
Guarantees, it seems, are simply things that might happen. We are basing that on lived experience. We are speaking of the experience of America having left the JCPOA. And we negotiated with the current American Government for a year and a half for it to renew its commitment to return to the agreement and fulfil its provisions.
Today, even as the American Government speaks of honouring their commitments to this deal, it keeps repeating the same old stories of the past, which casts serious doubt on its true commitment to return to the agreement. That brings us to another challenge. Can we truly trust, without guarantees or assurances, that the American Government will live up to their commitment this time?
Of course, the Islamic Republic of Iran, with various well-established and vast relationships with countries across the globe, has managed in many cases to neutralize the sanctions and to create new opportunities. The United States Government itself has announced many times through various Government officials that the maximum-pressure policy has suffered an embarrassing defeat. We have found our path, independent of any agreement, and we will continue steadfastly on that path.
At the same time, while we are very earnest in the negotiations and have shown that if the rights of the people of Iran are respected, there is a great and serious will to resolve all issues, we believe that the knot of the nuclear deal must be loosened from the same place where they managed to tie it.
I will conclude by expressing the need felt around the world for justice and fairness. Every single human being must be a part of actively building a new world based on justice and human values. If we wish the new world to be acceptable, righteous, powerful and successful in resolving the challenges facing humankind, then it must be based in global fairness and justice. That requires following several principles.
First, throughout the world, we must feel collectively responsible and determined to fight against oppression.
Secondly, we must respect the wishes and will of the people and of nations and must refrain from direct engagement in their internal affairs.
Thirdly, we must eliminate double standards.
Fourthly, we must stand up to violence and war.
Fifthly, international organizations must act independently and prudently.
Finally, and most important, we must create roles for dignified and qualified humans with experience so that they can create that new system. Our views on the future horizon are very realistic. On the basis of divine promises, as delivered by the prophets, we firmly believe that justice will envelop the world, and those who are true followers of divine commands will be blessed by the reappearance of the last messiah.