Iran's President Raisi calls for global movement to support family; Rejecting the Old Order: Iran's Vision for a More Just and Equitable World On the second day of his trip to New York, President Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi addressed the 78th General Assembly of the United Nations on Tuesday afternoon local time. He touched on a variety of important topics facing the world today, including the importance of protecting the family and marriage of men and women, methods of fighting terrorism, and how to end wars and establish peace.   The following is a paraphrase of the President's speech. To read the full text, please click here. Anti-Islamism and cultural apartheid, in their various forms, including burning the Holy Qur'an to banning the hijab in schools and dozens of other shameful discriminations, do not fit the progress of modern man. Behind the curtain of this hate speech, there is a bigger plot and reducing it to the category of freedom of speech is misleading.  The West, which is now faced with an identity and functional crisis, sees the world as a forest and itself as a beautiful garden. Some sinister but powerful currents see the solution in creating a crisis and making enemies. This cultural apartheid has targeted the Muslim community and especially the immigrants; Immigrants who themselves are victims of colonial policies. Like all believers and freedom seekers, we believe that respect for divine religions should be included in the international agenda, and the United Nations will ensure respect for divine religions by designing a mechanism.   Protecting the Family: A Global Agenda In addition to the war against Islam, we are also witnessing a war against the family. The family is the most authentic, lasting, fundamental and natural human institution that is under threat today. Today, the crime against humanity is not only the occupation of lands and the killing of innocents and the colonization of nations, but the attack on the natural shelter of human beings, which is the family, is also a crime against humanity. Protecting the privacy of family and marriage, which is formed by the union of a woman and a man, is a global reality that should become a common global agenda. Education, development and human excellence cannot be achieved except in the framework of family values. Fake narratives of marriage and gender are actually an attempt to eliminate transcendental concepts such as mother, father and natural family; Actions that can be seen as examples of crimes against humanity and cause the end of the human race. It is our human duty to deal with such approaches. Today, we need a global movement of commitment to the family so that all family members can experience a warm life together. We ask all the leaders of the world and the leaders of divine religions to fulfil their historical duty in supporting the original position of the concept of family and confronting fake narratives. We expect the United Nations to place respect for the noble position of the family at the top of its agenda.    Iran Calls for Economic and Political Convergence The Islamic Republic of Iran supports maximum economic and political convergence within and between regions and is interested in interacting with the whole world based on justice. However, now that the independent countries of the world are taking steps towards greater cooperation and convergence, we are witnessing the efforts of some powers to ignite the fire of conflict in different regions. With a Cold War mentality, they seek to divide the world into blocs again. This movement is reactionary and detrimental to the security and well-being of nations. The Islamic Republic of Iran firmly believes that a new East and West should not be allowed to form. Securing trade corridors, downgrading countries from allies to dependents, hindering the economic growth of independent countries, and creating proxy wars in Asia and Europe are part of this sinister chain.   Iran's "Neighborhood and Convergence" Policy: A Path to Peace and Prosperity At a time when some powers are pushing the world towards more wars, the Islamic Republic of Iran has proposed the policy of "neighborhood and convergence". The neighborhood policy is a benevolent policy for the region, and based on this, extensive economic cooperation and strengthening infrastructure links are at the top of the regional agenda. The Islamic Republic warmly shakes every hand that is extended for friendship. It is an independent and powerful neighbor for the region of opportunity. Now that our region has passed two decades of imposed tension and crisis and the resistance of free nations in Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Afghanistan has borne fruit, the prospects for the region can only be guaranteed by deepening mutual political trust and extensive economic cooperation, and endogenous security. Iran has established a new chapter of beneficial relations with neighboring, aligned and like-minded countries, and by being a member of regional and international mechanisms, it has shared its capacities to form a fair order, and by prioritizing the completion of trade crossings, including the North-South corridor that connects the world of north with the world of south, ensures sustainable economic benefits for all nations in the region. Also, the Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to share its unique natural and technical capacities in the field of clean energy production and transmission with other countries in order to reduce and manage the harmful effects of climate change.   Intra-Regional Cooperation: The Key to Security in the Caucasus and Persian Gulf At the security level, the neighborhood policy seeks to ensure stable security through intra-regional cooperation and preventing foreign interference. From the Caucasus to the Persian Gulf, any foreign presence is not only part of the solution, but the problem itself. We consider the security of our neighbors as our security and any insecurity for them as insecurity for us. We established initiatives in the region with seriousness and goodwill. However, the nexus of politics and security needs to be strengthened and will only be sustainable when combined with meaningful economic cooperation.   The Iranian Nation's Triumph: Defying Western Miscalculations and Psychological Warfare Last year was the year of the victory of the Iranian nation. Some western countries and their intelligence services made a miscalculation last year and once again underestimated the power of the Iranian nation. Since the victory of the Islamic Revolution under the leadership of Imam Khomeini, the enemies of the Iranian nation have imposed all kinds of wars, sanctions and maximum pressure on our people with "consecutive crises". It has been 45 years since these policies have failed and the Iranian nation has achieved "consecutive victories". Now they are facing an Islamic Republic that has both resisted and progressed on the basis of a deep bond with its nation. Last year, the Iranian nation was the target of the biggest media attack and psychological war in history. Can America, which is the biggest prison for mothers in the world, honestly worry about women's rights? During this period, the image that was transmitted from Iran to the world was the product of suppressing valid information and disseminating misinformation. Despite producing and publishing tens of thousands of false news and reports about Iran, important facts about Iran are being censored all over the world: - Have you ever heard anything about the chemical bombing of Iranian people? Those chemical weapons were given to Saddam by some Europeans. - Have you seen the picture of the chemical victims who are still alive, but have been in the hospital for about 35 years and are in pain? - Has the image of children suffering from butterfly disease suffering due to the drug embargo by America and some western countries been broadcast to the world from the mainstream media? - Have you seen the pictures of patience, resistance, sacrifice and martyrdom in the resistant people of Islamic Iran? - Have you heard anything about the irreplaceable movement of 22 million people from different countries in the huge Arba'een procession in Iraq? - Today's security of the Kurdistan region owes to the efforts of martyred general Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the fight against terrorism, otherwise many regions of the world would be burning in the fire of ISIS. But have they shown or will give you any of these courage in the media and Hollywood? - The 25-million-people funeral of the commander of the fight against terrorism Haj Qassem Soleimani was censored. Sadness, anger and sense of revenge of 85 million people of Iran and the Islamic Ummah were censored. The assassination of martyr Qassem Soleimani was a reward for ISIS, which, according to former US officials, was their own creation. Therefore, instead of honoring that brave commander, they assassinated him. But the Islamic Republic of Iran will not stop using all the tools and capacities to execute justice and prosecute the perpetrators and managers of this state terrorism until a definite result is achieved; The blood of the oppressed will not be trampled and it will hunt the oppressor.   The Zionist Regime: A Threat to Peace and Security Occupation, terrorism and extremism are among the most important serious threats in West Asia, which disrupt any order based on the interests of the nations of the region. The eradication of terrorism depends on the comprehensive and targeted fight against its roots and manifestations and the indiscriminate punishment of terrorists all over the world. The use of terrorism by some western governments as a tool of foreign policy neutralizes the fight of the countries of the region against terrorism. The management and exploitation of some western security services from extremist groups and especially the targeted movement of foreign combatant forces in different geographical areas also fuel these concerns. Some European countries should answer why, while claiming to fight terrorism, they have become a safe haven for a terrorist group that has so far assassinated more than 17 thousand Iranian citizens in the street? Discrimination in the fight against terrorism means a green light to terrorists. Iran, which is the biggest victim of terrorism, is the pioneer in the fight against terrorism in the region. The nations of the region consider Iran to be a reliable partner for their security and the occupying Regime of Quds is the main cause of insecurity, instability and promoting violence in the region. Isn't it time to end the 75 years of occupation of the Palestinian land and the oppression of that oppressed nation and the killing of women and children and the rights of the Palestinian nation be recognized? The continued occupation of Palestine and parts of Lebanon and Syria by the Zionist Regime and depriving the oppressed Palestinian people of their inalienable and inherent rights, especially in the formation of a Palestinian state with Bayt al-Maqdis as its capital, has led to the escalation of the crimes of this Regime and the expansion of the scope of aggression and threats to other countries in the region. The only government based on apartheid and racial discrimination remaining in the world, which is founded on the basis of war, occupation, terrorism and violation of the rights of nations and continues to live on this basis and method, cannot be a partner of peace.   Iran's Position on the War in Ukraine: Rejecting War and Supporting a Political Solution Regarding the war between Ukraine and Russia, I would like to emphasize once again the position of the Islamic Republic of Iran in rejecting war as a solution to any conflict. We do not consider the war in Europe to be in the interest of any European side. Rejecting any ceasefire plan in the Ukraine war by the Americans shows that America has a long-term plan to weaken Europe. We support any initiative to end the war and start the political process and declare our readiness to play a constructive role in this field.   America's Violation of the JCPOA: A Breach of Trust and a Threat to Peace America's withdrawal from the JCPOA was a violation of the Muslim principle of faithfulness to the covenant. The US government continues to avoid fulfilling its obligations under the JCPOA by clearly violating the provisions of Security Council Resolution 2231. With this behavior, America has actually prescribed lawlessness and coercion instead of cooperation, contrary to all its claims. America needs to prove by building trust that it has good intentions and has a real will to fulfil its commitments and finalize the path. The Europeans, who after years of not adhering to their commitments, including the cancellation of sanctions, are now violating the JCPOA and UN Security Council Resolution 2231, must understand that they will lose if they speed up the costly path of confrontation. Nuclear weapons have no place in the defense doctrine of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Official reports of relevant international authorities and even Western intelligence communities have repeatedly emphasized the truth of this claim. As in the past two decades, the Islamic Republic of Iran will in no way abandon the inalienable rights of its nation to peacefully benefit from nuclear technology. The world's only nuclear criminal does not fulfil its obligations under the NPT to disarm nuclear weapons, but by imposing illegal unilateral sanctions, it violates the indisputable principles of international law and the United Nations Charter and violates the rights of nations. But these sanctions have had no effect on our nation's decisiveness in the country's progress. It is time for America to end its crisis of decision-making and choose the right path.