Full transcript below. I downloaded it from the UN website. I verified that it matched the video, there was 1 typo.
I had prepared a speech to present to you yesterday.
The United States President described us as terrorists.
We have been the victims of terrorism.
I come from an Iran in which our esteemed Supreme Leader was assassinated without any legal framework or reason.I come from an Iran where, in truth, they bombed a school.
You see these children?
These children perished under bombs, with weapons used by the United States and Israel.
They were innocent, had committed no crimes.Lamerd, one of the small cities in a province in Iran, a sports hall where children were busy playing.
The United States, by using weapons with multiple warheads, targeted that sports hall.
They martyred, assassinated, our scientists, our men, women, and children.
Innocent children who, in truth, had committed no crimes, no sins.Those who are terrorists and train and protect terrorists describe us as such.
We have only defended ourselves.
We are not terrorists.
Our innocent people have been the targets of cowardly attacks and aggressions imposed upon our country, and we defended ourselves with utmost strength.America and Israel attacked us, equipped with the latest technology and weapons systems, and our people stood steadfast.
Yes, they did hit us, but we did not bend the knee.
We did not bow our head.
We responded, but we did not hit civilian populations.They came into surrounding territories and targeted our universities, our healthcare centers, our schools, our hospitals, our infrastructures—all of it against international law.
When I took over the responsibilities as President, they assassinated Ismail Haniyeh in Iran.
On the day of my inauguration, Israel targets any neighborhood, in any city, in any province, commits assassinations like a true terrorist.
In Gaza, over 80,000 innocent civilians have been murdered, brutally murdered.Hundreds of thousands have been displaced.
They are committing genocide by using the so-called technologies that they have at their disposal.
Then they label others as terrorists.
Are we the sources of instability?We only seek to live independently.
We are the ones who cause instability.
Those who are committing terrorism and committing crimes, are they the protectors of peace and stability?
None of the international laws have been adhered to by them.This is what we're facing.
We don't want anything.
We have received our response.
We need strength, because a people which is unable to defend itself will be trampled upon in today's world.We live in a world in which the powerful, instead of thinking about humanity, justice, fairness, and democracy, they seem to be the protectors and creators of instability and destruction.
Whomever they wish to discredit, they label them as terrorists.
Two hundred years—for the past two centuries— Iran has not attacked any country or any territory, but we've always defended ourselves steadfastly.
But now we're being accused of being source of instability in the region?We're labeled terrorists?
And this has made it so that the path that we have chosen for ourselves requires power to defend ourselves.
We do not seek power in order to attack or commit aggression.
We seek energy for progress, not to threaten societies with weapons.And we wish to cooperate and collaborate for security.
The people of Iran, in the past 7 months, our people, have been in the streets every night demonstrating in support of their land, of their homeland, so as to not allow those who were equipped and trained and armed by Israel and America to cause disruption in the security of their country.
For 7 months, day and night, they've been present in the streets.
They are our source of power and our support.And that's why we stand fast.
Iran must be powerful so as to avoid being threatened, to avoid its future being threatened.
We do not wish to use our power for hegemony, and we do not seek our security in the insecurity of others.
Vis-à-vis Iran's defense, our defensive systems have been built so that no one can think that bombing of Iranian cities will go unanswered.That is why we have the military power we do for defense.
But we say it clearly: in order to defend our country, we do not seek anyone's permission or approval.
We seek energy for progress.
For years, there have been—they have labeled centrifuges, international sanctions, other labels—when it comes to our nuclear technology.But for our country, peaceful nuclear technology is part of our inherent progress.
For our sick people, it is cure and treatment.
For the agricultural sector, it is food security.
For industry, it is advancement and progress and supply of electrical energy.Iran does not accept for nuclear technology to be at the exclusive disposal of some, of a handful.
We will not— we will not bow our head and give up the right that is inherently ours.
We say it clearly: no nuclear weapons, and no limitations to peaceful nuclear technology.
Our peace will not come in the field of battle.But they must give the needed security to the people and nation of Iran.
We seek cooperation in order to have security.
We live in a region in which warfare knows no borders.
Crisis in one land will spill into the surrounding nations.That's why Iran does not see her neighbors as security rivals.
We want to have strong neighbors.
In waters in the Strait of Hormuz, we do not— we cannot let some have free access and gain their interests from a waterway while at the same time using that waterway to impose their aggressions upon us, to impose insecurity upon us, to forbid us access to our own waterways.
They close access for us to our own waterway, yet they keep supplying missiles and deadly military technologies to bring insecurity to all of the lands surrounding that waterway.We will not succumb to that.
The expansion of warfare will not result in security.
One cannot create chaos for the coastal countries seeking naval security.
Excellencies, vis-à-vis Palestine, Palestine remains an open wound on the conscience of the international community, and Gaza remains a symbol of the failure of international mechanisms to prevent civilian suffering.For decades, resolutions have been adopted, yet occupation and violence have continued.
We cannot speak of peace while ignoring Palestine.
Lasting peace in West Asia is impossible without justice for Palestine.
As long as occupation, aggression, and injustice persist in the world, resistance will continue.If it is weakened in one form, it will reemerge in others, perhaps stronger still.
Gaza, despite relentless killing and widespread devastation, has strengthened the people's faith in resistance.
And resistance cannot be destroyed by bombs and siege.
This is human nature.If a human being is driven from his or her land, they will resist.
If their homes are subjected to bombings and aggression and attacks, they will resist.
What other choice do they have?
Succumb to bullying?To be driven from their homes, from their lands, and remain silent in the face of these threats and dangers?
And when they defend themselves, they're labeled as terrorists?
The language makes it, unfortunately, clear the type of world that we're living in today.
Our regional issues must be resolved in the region, at the hands of the countries in the region, without becoming a toy in the hands of outside aggressors.No relationship with a foreign power can become the tools of threatening neighboring countries in the region.
And now, a few words with those who are responsible for having planned and carried out aggressions against our country and our people have experienced firsthand the result of their deadly aggression.
And they have tested the strength and the steadfastness of Iran, and they have learned that Iran cannot be made to surrender.
Iran has never, ever been an aggressor, has never started a war, and has always shown her commitment to the negotiating table.They imposed the war on us, but we proved—we have proven—that we're not afraid of fighting, of war, a war that is defensive in nature.
And we will stand in defense of our beloved Iran, our homeland, until our last breath.
Ladies and gentlemen, the topic of this gathering is mutual trust.
That cannot be achieved through words only, but by abstaining from using double standards.Atomic and nuclear bombs are in the hands of the Israeli regime, but the inspectors are requested to come to Iran.
Israel has murdered savagely over 70,000 innocents in Gaza, but Iran, while behind the table of negotiation, was bombed.
Israel has the bombs, has weapons of mass destruction, not a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty during her shameful life has not allowed a single inspection.
But they are rewarded by all the means necessary for them to be able to bomb any capital in the region at will.I will repeat: the nuclear weapon is in Israel, but the inspectors in Iran.
Israel kills, but Iran is subject to sanctions.
This is a true tragedy, which would make anyone hearing it laugh, at best.
They kill, we are sanctioned, we are punished.Those who are ill, innocent people, the poor, the least privileged in our society, are the targets of these sanctions.
And this is what the United States seeks to do with all countries: to sacrifice the population of a country in order to achieve her illegitimate goals.
If we seek true peace and stability, we must apply a single standard for all.
Iran does not seek special treatment.We seek equal rights.
We assume the responsibility, accept the responsibility that comes with it.
But Iran, during her prideful history, has learned the following lesson: a world without power is dangerous, but a world that only understands the language of war and bullyism will not be safe.
When we seek to have agendas to implement that only adhere to the benefits of a few privileged, we will have a world in disarray.But we see that this will become a world much more dangerous for all of us.
We must not allow the 21st century to go back to an era of only the powerful and the bullying powers and the hegemons.
We must not build a world in which military power replaces legitimacy, terrorism replaces politics and negotiations, and war replaces dialogue and diplomacy.
Iran extends her hand towards the world.We invite the world.
We call the world, not out of weakness, but out of a deep belief in our own power and steadfastness, to cooperate and collaborate.
Because of a deep belief that no one in this region will have security alone.
Either we will build it together, or we will have to live under insecurity together.We seek to think about a world future in which security, fairness, justice, human dignity will become unalienable rights for all people, for all humans.
A future in which no people are driven to the sidelines, no voice is lost in the chaos of power, and no power will have the right to determine the future of a people other than those people themselves.
If we truly seek to have an order based on international law and standards, it must be based in justice, common human will, uplifting human dignity.
Because a peace that does not encompass all is no peace, and fairness and justice that does not embrace all is not worthy of being called justice and fairness.But going back to the words of the President of the United States yesterday shows those who are experts in international law and dialogue and diplomacy and basic human standards that everything other about our country goes against the very essence and charter and the spirit of the United Nations.
He must know that the resistance of the Iranian people will only increase in the face of sanctions, increased pressure, increased bullying.
We will never bow our head or bend at the knee.
Iran must be understood by Mr. Trump and those who seek to bully us that we are ready for dialogue and diplomacy and negotiations without accepting the language of force.I truly appreciate your time and presence here.
May God bless you all.
