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Statements by the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian at the General Debate of the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). teleSUR
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00:09Welcome to the United Nations Iranian President Masoud Paiseskian is addressing the general
00:15debate of the 81st United Nations General Assembly. Let's listen.
00:18President, Mr. Secretary-General, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
00:27I had prepared a speech to present to you yesterday. The United States President described us as terrorists.
00:38We have been the victims of terrorism.
00:45I come from an Iran in which our esteemed Supreme Leader was assassinated without any legal framework or reason.
01:00I come from an Iran where, in truth, they bombed a school.
01:09You see these children?
01:14These children perished under bombs with weapons used by the United States and Israel.
01:24They were innocent, had committed no crimes.
01:33Lamert, one of the small cities in a province in Iran, a sports hall where children were busy playing.
01:44The United States, by using weapons with multiple warheads, targeted that sports hall.
01:56They martyred, assassinated our scientists, our men, women and children.
02:03Innocent children, innocent children whom, in truth, had committed no crimes, no sins.
02:09Those who are terrorists and train and protect terrorists describe us as such.
02:17We have only defended ourselves.
02:19We are not terrorists.
02:22Our innocent people have been the targets of cowardly attacks and aggressions imposed upon our country.
02:34And we defended ourselves with utmost strength.
02:39America and Israel attacked us, equipped with the latest technology and weapons systems.
02:44And our people stood steadfast.
02:47Yes, they did hit us, but we did not bend the knee.
02:51We did not bow our head.
02:54We responded, but we did not hit civilian populations.
02:58They came into surrounding territories and targeted our universities, our healthcare centers, our schools, our hospitals, our infrastructures, all of
03:12it against international law.
03:14When I took over the responsibilities as president, they assassinated Ismail Hania in Iran on the day of my inauguration.
03:23Israel targets any neighborhood in any city, in any province, commits assassinations like a true terrorist.
03:31In Gaza, over 80,000 innocent civilians have been murdered, brutally murdered.
03:38Hundreds of thousands have been displaced.
03:42They are committing genocide by using the so-called technologies that they have at their disposal.
03:48Then they label others as terrorists.
03:50Are we the sources of instability?
03:54We only seek to live independently.
03:58We are the ones who cause instability.
04:00Those who are committing terrorism and committing crimes, are they the protectors of peace and stability?
04:09None of the international laws have been adhered to by them.
04:14This is what we're facing.
04:16We don't want anything.
04:23We have received our response.
04:26We need strength.
04:29Because a people which is unable to defend itself will be trampled upon in today's world.
04:36We live in a world in which the powerful, instead of thinking about humanity, justice, fairness and democracy, they seem
04:46to be the protectors and creators of instability and destruction.
04:50Whomever they wish to discredit, they label them as terrorists.
04:53Two hundred years.
04:55Two hundred years.
04:55For the past two centuries, Iran has not attacked any country or any territory.
04:59But we've always defended ourselves steadfastly.
05:03But now we're being accused of being a source of instability in the region.
05:07We're labeled terrorists.
05:10And this has made it so that the path that we have chosen for ourselves requires power to defend ourselves.
05:21We do not seek power in order to attack or commit aggression.
05:24We seek energy for progress, not to threaten societies with weapons.
05:32And we wish to cooperate and collaborate for security.
05:36The people of Iran, in the past seven months, our people have been in the streets every night demonstrating in
05:44support of their land, of their homeland.
05:47So as to not allow those who were equipped and trained and armed by Israel and America to cause disruption
05:59in the security of their country.
06:01For seven months, day and night, they've been present in the streets.
06:05They are our source of power and our support.
06:08And that's why we stand fast.
06:10Iran must be powerful so as to avoid being threatened, to avoid its future being threatened.
06:18We do not wish to use our power for hegemony.
06:24And we do not seek our security in the insecurity of others.
06:30Vis-a-vis Iran's defense, our defensive systems have been built so that no one can think that bombing of
06:40Iranian systems
06:40Our cities will go unanswered.
06:42That is why we have the military power we do for defense.
06:46But we say it clearly.
06:47In order to defend our country, we do not seek anyone's permission or approval.
06:52We seek energy for progress.
06:55For years, there have been, they have labeled centrifuges, international sanctions, other labels when it comes to our nuclear technology.
07:09But for our country, peaceful nuclear technology is part of our inherent progress.
07:15For our sick people is cure and treatment.
07:19For the agricultural sector is food security.
07:22For industries, advancement and progress and supply of electrical energy.
07:28Iran does not accept for nuclear technology to be at the exclusive disposal of some, of a handful.
07:36We will not, we will not bow our head and give up the right that is inherently ours.
07:47We say it clearly.
07:49No nuclear weapons and no limitations to new peaceful nuclear technology.
07:55Our peace will not come in the field of battle.
08:03But they must give the needed security to the people and nation of Iran.
08:10We seek cooperation in order to have security.
08:15We live in a region in which warfare knows no borders.
08:19Crisis in one land will spill into the surrounding nations.
08:25That's why Iran does not see her neighbors as security rivals.
08:31We want to have strong neighbors in waters in the Strait of Hormuz.
08:38We do not, we cannot let some have free access and gain their interest from a waterway while at the
08:47same time using that waterway to impose their aggressions upon us, to impose insecurity upon us, to forbid us access
08:58to our own waterways.
09:00They close access for us to our own waterways, yet they keep supplying missiles and deadly military technologies to bring
09:14insecurity to all of the lands surrounding that waterway.
09:19We will not succumb to that.
09:25The expansion of warfare will not result in security.
09:29One cannot create chaos for the coastal countries seeking naval security.
09:38Excellencies, vis-a-vis Palestine.
09:40Palestine remains an open wound on the conscience of the international community and Gaza remains a simple of the failure
09:48of international mechanisms to prevent civilian suffering.
09:52For decades, resolutions have been adopted, yet occupation and violence have continued.
10:01We cannot speak of peace while ignoring Palestine.
10:08Lasting peace in West Asia is impossible without justice for Palestine.
10:14As long as occupation, aggression and injustice persist in the world, resistance will continue.
10:23If it is weakened in one form, it will reemerge in others, perhaps stronger still.
10:37Gaza, despite relentless killing and widespread devastation, has strengthened the people's faith in resistance, and resistance cannot be destroyed by
10:50bombs and siege.
10:51This is human nature.
10:55If a human being is driven from his or her land, they will resist.
11:01If their homes are subjected to bombings and aggression and attacks, they will resist.
11:06What other choice do they have?
11:08Succumb to bullying?
11:10To be driven from their homes?
11:12From their lands?
11:14And remain silent in the face of these threats and dangers?
11:19And when they defend themselves, they're labeled as terrorists?
11:23The language makes it, unfortunately, clear the type of world that we're living in today.
11:30Our regional issues must be resolved in the region, at the hands of the countries in the region,
11:40without becoming a toy in the hands of outside aggressors.
11:47No relationship with the foreign power can become the tools of threatening neighboring countries in the region.
11:54And now, a few words with those who are responsible for having planned and carried out aggressions against our country.
12:06And our people have experienced firsthand the result of their deadly aggression.
12:11And they have tested the strength and the steadfastness of Iran.
12:16And they have learned that Iran cannot be made to surrender.
12:21Iran has never, ever been an aggressor, has never started a war, and has always shown her commitment to the
12:30negotiating table.
12:31They imposed the war on us.
12:33But we proved, we have proven that we're not afraid of fighting, of war, a war that is defensive in
12:43nature.
12:44And we will stand in defense of our beloved Iran, our homeland, until our last breath.
12:50Ladies and gentlemen, the topic of this gathering is mutual trust.
12:59That cannot be achieved through words only, but by abstaining from using double standards.
13:07Atomic and nuclear bombs are in the hands of the Israeli regime, but the inspectors are requested to come to
13:16Iran.
13:18Israel has murdered, savagely, over 70,000 innocents in Gaza.
13:25But Iran, while behind the table of negotiation, was bombed.
13:30Israel has the bombs, has weapons of mass destruction.
13:33Not a member of the non-proliferation treaty during her shameful life has not allowed a single inspection.
13:41But they are rewarded by all the means necessary for them to be able to bomb any capital in the
13:49region at will.
13:50I will repeat, the nuclear weapon is in Israel, but the inspectors in Iran.
13:55Israel kills, but Iran is subject to sanctions.
14:01This is a true tragedy, which would make anyone hearing it laugh at best.
14:08They kill, we are sanctioned, we are punished.
14:11Those who are ill, innocent people, the poor, the least privileged in our society are the targets of these sanctions.
14:18And this is what the United States seeks to do with all countries, to sacrifice the population of a country
14:27in order to achieve her illegitimate goals.
14:31If we seek true peace and stability, we must apply a single standard for all.
14:36Iran does not seek special treatment.
14:39We seek equal rights.
14:42We assume the responsibility, accept the responsibility that comes with it.
14:48But Iran, during her prideful history, has learned the following lesson.
14:53A world without power is dangerous, but a world that only understands the language of war and bullism will not
15:03be safe.
15:05When we seek to have agendas to implement that only adhere to the benefits of a few privileged, we will
15:16have a world in disarray.
15:18But we see that this will become a world much more dangerous for all of us.
15:24We must not allow the 21st century to go back to an era of only the powerful and the bullying
15:35powers and the hegemons.
15:37We must not build a world in which military power replaces legitimacy.
15:45Terrorism replaces politics and negotiations.
15:49And war replaces dialogue and diplomacy.
15:54Iran extends her hand towards the world.
15:58We invite the world.
16:01We call the world, not out of weakness, but out of a deep belief in our own power and steadfastness,
16:08to cooperate and collaborate,
16:09because of a deep belief that no one in this region will have security alone.
16:15Either we will build it together or we will have to live under insecurity together.
16:22We seek to think about a worthy future in which security, fairness, justice, human dignity will become unalienable rights for
16:36all people, for all humans.
16:39A future in which no people are driven to the sidelines.
16:43No voice is lost in the chaos of power.
16:48And no power has, will have the right to determine the future of a people other than those people themselves.
16:58If we truly seek to have an order based on international law and standards,
17:03it must be based in justice, common human will, uplifting human dignity,
17:09because a peace that does not encompass all is no peace.
17:13And fairness and justice that does not embrace all is not worthy of being called justice and fairness.
17:21But going back to the words of the President of the United States yesterday,
17:26shows those who are experts in international law and dialogue and diplomacy and basic human standards,
17:37that everything uttered about our country goes against the very essence and charter and the spirit of the United Nations.
17:45He must know that the resistance of the Iranian people will only increase in the face of sanctions,
17:51increased pressure, increased bullying.
17:55We will never bow our head or bend at the knee.
18:03Iran must be understood by Mr. Trump and those who seek to bully us,
18:07that we are ready for dialogue and diplomacy and negotiations without accepting the language of force.
18:13I truly appreciate your time and presence here. May God bless you all.
18:22We were listening to the statements of the Iranian President Mesut Pesed-Khan,
18:27at the general debate of the 81st United Nations General Assembly,
18:32who was making clear reference to the words expressed by the U.S. President in the first day yesterday on
18:37Tuesday,
18:39going against denouncing what the U.S. president said as baton lights,
18:44putting clear examples of how Iran has been the victims of terrorist attacks by the U.S.
18:50and Israel, putting the example of the Minapsco that was bombed where over 100 girls were killed,
18:55the example of the sports facility in Lamer that was also attacked and civilians were as well killed.
19:01Putting clear examples that Iran is fighting a war of resistance, a war that was imposed on Iran
19:06and making clear that Iran will not back down, will not surrender and will not bow to any hegemon
19:12that tried to impose their agenda on them.
19:15He also took a moment to denounce what is happening in Gaza against the Palestinian,
19:20what is happening against the Palestinian people,
19:21denounce the double standards of the so-called international community on how they put sanctions,
19:27they put aggression, they attack Iran for their nuclear peace,
19:31their peaceful nuclear technology that they want to develop for the benefit of the people
19:35and instead Israel enjoys the benefit of not being subject to any kind of inspection
19:40while they do have the nuclear weapon and all the crimes and genocide that they carry out
19:45in not only in Palestine but also against other countries in the region,
19:49their continuous bombing, indiscriminate bombings that face no repercussions from the international community.
19:55The message, especially on the president of Iran, made it clear that an international war,
19:59the international community must be based on justice and the same rules must be applied to all equally.
20:07These are some of the words, some of the statements that he made during his speech
20:12as we were saying in the general debate of the Air Force United Nations General Assembly.
20:16We'll have more updates in upcoming news, so stay with Telesur.
20:29See you next time.
20:31See you next time.
20:32See you next time.