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Iran (Islamic Republic of)
H.E. Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President

23 September 2008

Statement Summary

H.E. Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran

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MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, President of Iran, noted that the root of the world’s problems with peace and morality lay in one’s particular worldview as well as issues of freedom, obeisance to God and justice.

He then noted that the world was being deceived by hegemonic world and bullying Powers that attacked Iraq under the false pretext of uncovering weapons of mass destruction and overthrowing a dictator.  These Powers had insisted on imposing colonial agreements on Iraq by keeping them under Chapter VII of the Charter.  While this was going on, he said that Palestine had suffered 60 years of carnage and invasion by Zionists, even as United Nations resolutions that have addressed the plight of the Palestinian people had been relegated to the archives, unnoticed.

He pointed out that, in Afghanistan, the production of narcotics had multiplied since the presence of NATO forces along with myriad problems including terrorism.  He said the people of Afghanistan were the victims of the willingness of NATO member States to dominate the regions surrounding India, China and South Asia, and the Security Council could not do anything about it because some NATO members were also a part of the Council.

Efforts were being made to re-establish colonial relationships in Africa by starting civil wars in large countries like the Sudan, he said.  If there was national resistance, the leaders were put under pressure by legal mechanisms created by the very same Powers.  He explained that, in Latin America, people found their security, national interests and cultures to be seriously endangered by the menacing shadow of alien, domineering Governments, and even by the embassies of some empires.

He said those bullying Powers had also sought to put hurdles before Iran’s peaceful nuclear programme despite being regulated by international standards.  Those same Powers were producing new generations of lethal nuclear arms and possessed stockpiles of nuclear weapons that no international organization was monitoring, and the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had been perpetrated by one of them.

He said the time had come for IAEA to present a clear report to the international community on its monitoring of the disarmament of these nuclear Powers and their nuclear activities, and for a disarmament committee to be established by independent States to monitor the disarmament of these nuclear Powers.

He said a deceitful minority was dominating the financial and political decision-making centres of the United States and some countries of the European Union.  The Iranian people and the overwhelming majority of peoples and Governments were against the deeds and perspectives of the world-domineering Powers, he said.

[Source: GA/10749]

Right of Reply (27 September 2008)

Speaking in exercise of the right of reply, the representative of Iran responded to the “unacceptable, futile and unfounded claims” made by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates, specifically regarding three Iranian islands of Abu Musa, in the Persian Gulf.  Iran categorically rejected the United Arab Emirate’s claim to those islands and wished to emphasize that they were “an eternal part of the Iranian territory” and, as such, were under its sovereignty.

He expressed his Government’s wish to pursue positive diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates and underlined the fact that all actions and measures in the islands had been taken in exercise of the sovereign right of Iran.  Iran was ready to continue its bilateral talks with the United Arab Emirates with the view to removing any misunderstandings that might exist concerning the islands. 

[Source: GA/10757]

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