In the Name of God, the Almighty

Your Excellencies, Ambassadors and Heads of Missions,

Distinguished Guests,

Esteemed Audience,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I welcome all of you, dear guests, to the Fourth International Conference on Fighting against Terrorism in Romania.

Following last year’s significant victories in Iraq and Syria against the self-proclaimed Islamic caliphate of Daesh, which were a major blow to terrorism in the region and in the world, the people of the world is rightly expecting that the region, and in particular Syria, to witness regional peace and security and stability after six years of war and bloodshed, killing and displacement of its oppressed people. Of course, Syria’s legitimate government is conducting a review of the process of peace and reconciliation in the country, along with friends, civil society opponents, and the UN representative. But unfortunately, at the same time, we have witnessed the fact that, despite the overthrow of Daesh, some of the remaining terrorists from other armed opposition groups, continued, with foreign support, to refuse to withdraw from the occupied territories in Syria, and want to continue the violent conflicts in this country. Naturally, the continuation of these terrorist acts will harm the peace process in Syria and it will seriously delay it. In this regard, unfortunately, we witness that recently the Government of America, despite the valuable achievements in the fight against terrorism in Syria, is repeating, again, the same positions of the past seven years that caused the crisis and this great tragedy, and it takes measure in order to undermine the legitimate Government of Syria. Will these positions have any other results other than fueling the crisis and encourage the terrorists? Will these positions help to establish national reconciliation in Syria? Unfortunately, with the new American Government coming to power in 2017, we have continuously witnessed actions from their side, all of which are contrary to the commitments of a global power that is also a member of the UN Security Council, to maintain peace and security in the world; measures such as: the withdrawal from the Climate Treaty, breaking the transatlantic trade with European allies, disrupting NAFTA with its allies in the American continent, disrupting global trade by violation of the WTO and imposing unbalanced tariffs on Chinese, European and Canadian goods, the declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of the Zionist regime, contrary to the resolutions and decrees of the United Nations, and the decision to transfer its embassy from Tel Aviv to the Sacred City of Beit al-Moghaddas, as well as the withdrawal from the JCPOA or Barjam, which is an international agreement based on the UN Security Council resolution, and was considered to be a historic and unparalleled nuclear agreement. Recently, we witness how the Islamic Republic of Iran, a country that has played a major role and made many sacrifices in defeating Daesh terrorism in Iraq and Syria, and has offered many martyrs on this path, has been transformed, in a cowardly manner, into the subject of the American leaders’ anger and has been threatened with the most difficult sanctions! Is this the reward for a country that fights terrorism with full vigilance and integrity and has prevented the formation of terrorist governments in Baghdad and Damascus? While in recent years the Islamic Republic of Iran has been heavily involved in the fight against terrorism in the region, and we thought that by destroying this ominous phenomenon, humanity would again find peace, security, and tranquility, it seems that now another phenomenon is a source of concern and worries for the minds of the people of the world, and this is nothing else than the unilateralism of one of the world powers –  which is also a member of the Security Council – which puts at risk all the international treaties and agreements, and this fact may easily lead to the emergence of a new global war. Is this a lower risk than the terrorism threat? Will there be anything left on Earth from humanity after World War III? We hope that the activists of the world, and in particular the American people, will think this through in order to find a solution to this huge and difficult dilemma. The danger of unilateralism is far greater than the risk of terrorism for humanity. Fortunately, at the international level, apart from the corrupt and hated Zionist regime, almost no country supports this destructive policy of the American government, and the country is completely alone and isolated because of its one-sided policy.

While there are 40 million poor people in the United States, according to President Trump’s confession, this country has spent  7 trillion $, which means 7,000 billion $ on the Syrian war, which, of course, has been limited to supporting terrorists such as Daesh and some Syrian opposition.

As Doctor ZARIF, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran has recently said in his press statement: “The US government is squandering its citizens’ resources, whether through its adventurism in Iraq and Afghanistan, its blind support for ‘Israel’ and other terror-sponsoring regimes, or its wasteful expansion of its nuclear arsenal: it will only add to the suffering of the people of America. The people of the United States are tired of corruption, injustice, and incompetence from their leaders. The world hears their voice.”

The Zionist regime, which has mourned the death of Daesh and has always been a supporter of terrorism in the region, thinks that supporting the destructive policies of the American Government can help its illegitimate survival. But it’s a string of illusion.

In the recent crisis in the Middle East, coordination between Israel’s Zionist regime and terrorists in Syria is obvious to everyone and injured terrorists are being treated in Zionist hospitals. The head of the military intelligence department of this regime has stated that “the failure of Daesh in Syria is not in Israel’s interest. Israel does not want the war in Syria to end in a way that Daesh might fail and the big countries might leave the region. We should try to prevent this from happening.”

Concurrent with the inauguration of the US Embassy in Qods, the Palestinian demonstrations in the Gaza Strip and other parts of the Palestinian territories were suppressed and drowned in blood. On May 14, 2018 the people of Palestine participated in peaceful manifestations, in protest against the occupation of Palestine and the siege of Gaza, but they faced the shelling of the Zionist troops. In only one day, more than 60 Palestinians were martyred and thousands were injured, and about 150 Palestinians have been martyred since the announcement of Trump’s decision until the opening day of the embassy.

The opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem, along with the seventy-year anniversary of the occupation of Palestine and the establishment of the Zionist regime (May 14, 1948, known as Yum-al-Nakbah), is showing the United States’ disregard for the 70-year Palestinian people’s legal demand for an independent state. The recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the Zionist regime and the transfer of the US embassy to this city by Trump is in complete contradiction with the UN General Assembly resolutions (the Security Council Resolution no. 181 dated 19 November 1947, and Resolution no. 478 dated August 20, 1980), as well as with the EU regulations, with the Islamic Cooperation Organization and so on.

The US measure of transferring its embassy to Qods Sharif is a new Balfour, which has hurt the feelings of more than a billion Muslims. This action will increase the tension and violence in the region, stimulating the feelings of the Muslim nations and pushing the region into more violence, insecurity, and instability. The reaction of Islamic and non-Islamic nations and governments to condemn this American action is confirming this aspect.

The Trump plan, called “the deal of the century”, is designed to completely eliminate the ambitions and aspirations of the Palestinian people and to unilaterally support the Zionist regime, fully opposing the demands of the Palestinians and the international community. According to the published news, issues such as the lack of dismantling the Zionist settlements and the majority of the settlements, the lack of return of the Palestinian refugees, the emphasis on the integrated Qods as the capital of the Zionist regime, the lack of Palestinian sovereignty over the West Bank, the deployment of the Israeli army on the Jordanian coast and so on, are being emphasized in this plan. They try to impose this plan on the people of Palestine by attracting the cooperation of important Arab countries and by providing some economic incentives for the Palestinians.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation resolutions emphasize the centrality of the issue of Palestine and Quds-al-Sharif as its everlasting capital. Based on this, the Zionist regime’s actions and efforts aiming to change the legal and historical status of Qods, the Islamic and Christian holy places, and its identity and demographic composition, are unacceptable.

The Islamic Republic of Iran believes that the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East will be achieved by resolving the basic issues of the crisis, including the ending of the organized occupation of Palestine, the return of all refugees to their homes, and the formation of an independent Palestinian state with Quds-al-Sharif as its capital, in the context of a referendum with the participation of all the tribes and inhabitants of this land, inclusive of Muslims, Christians and Jews.

I would say with confidence that as long as the problem of this cancerous tumor and this stigma on the forefront of humanity that is the Zionist regime in the Middle East is not solved, and the Palestinians do not gain their full rights, we will never see a lasting peace in the region.

With the defeat of Daesh it was proven that if there is determination and a comprehensive effort against terrorists, the disintegration of these dangerous and inhumane groups is not so difficult. The problem occurs only when some of the world powers want to exploit the inhumane actions of these terrorist groups, in order to reach their illegitimate interests and to advance their dirty politics in the region.

Unfortunately, the same powers of evil are continuing to strengthen the terrorists, seeking their illegitimate interests and trying to achieve their sinister goals in the Middle East, and therefore the movement towards peace, tranquility and permanent stability proceeds with so much difficulty, while the world has witnessed the harmful catastrophes of Syria in which about 300 thousand people have been killed and 11 million have been displaced. We witness the US forces attacks on the positions of the Iraqi and Syrian armies and also the overthrow of a Syrian warplane, which in fact is considered an effective aid to the terrorists.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As I have already emphasized, the effective fight and complete eradication of Daesh and other terrorist and takfiri groups, requires a collective and sustained support from the international community.

The terrorism factories from all around the world must be shut down. Their factory in Syria is not yet shut down, and they have opened another factory in Yemen. Do you think all these innocents in Yemen who are bombarded or killed, or that are losing their lives because of the widespread outbreak of cholera and lack of access to health and medical facilities, and food, will have no psychological effect on their survivors? Don’t you think that a new generation will be pushed towards terrorism? In fact, isn’t there another new factory to produce terrorism opened? When we look at the Saudis’ supporters and at the arms dealers to that country for the continuation of their crimes in Yemen, we find that they are one and the same with the main supporters of terrorism in Syria, who do not think in any way to stop this kind of ugly and dangerous method in order to achieve their illegitimate interests and advance their destructive policies in the region.

We consider that any attempt to classify terrorists as “good terrorists” and “bad terrorists” is counterproductive and illegal, and we reject it.

The only way to end the violence and crisis in Syria and to achieve national reconciliation is the political solution, which can be reached through dialogue and negotiation among all Syrian sides.

I wish all of you success, and I hope that by helping one another and by benefitting from the ideas of our esteemed guests from other countries participating at the conference, we will be able to offer useful and effective solutions to continue the fight against terrorism.

Thank you.

Note: This speech was presented with the occasion of the international conference “the New Geopolitical Environment in the Middle East: between Fighting Terrorism and the Future of the Region” held in Bucharest-Romania on July 5, 2018.