Speaking on Wednesday at the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, President Hassan Rouhani outlined the Hormuz Peace Endeavour (HOPE) initiative.

Full text of President Rouhani’s speech is as follows:

In the name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful

Mr. President
I would like to congratulate your deserved election as the president of the seventy-fourth General Assembly of the United Nations and wish success and good luck for Your Excellency and the honorable Secretary General.

At the outset, I should like to commemorate the freedom-seeking movement of Hossein (PBUH) and pay homage to all the freedom-seekers of the world who do not bow to oppression and aggression and tolerate all the hardship of the struggle for rights,

as well as to the spirits of all the oppressed martyrs of terrorist strikes and bombardment in Yemen, Syria, Occupied Palestine, Afghanistan and other countries of the world.

Ladies and Gentlemen
The Middle East is burning in the flames of war, bloodshed, aggression, occupation and religious and sectarian fanaticism and extremism; And under such circumstances, the suppressed people of Palestine are the biggest victim.

Discrimination, appropriation of lands, settlement expansions and killings continue to be practiced against the Palestinians.

The US and Zionist imposed plans such as the deal of century, recognizing Beit-ul Moqaddas as the capital of the Zionist regime and the accession of the Syrian Golan to other occupied territories are doomed.

As against the US destructive plans, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s regional and international assistance and cooperation on security and counter-terrorism have been so much decisive.

The clear example of such an approach is our cooperation with Russia and Turkey within the Astana format on the Syrian crisis and our peace proposal for Yemen in view of our active cooperation with the special envoys of the Secretary General of the United Nations as well as our efforts to facilitate reconciliation talks among the Yemen parties which resulted in the conclusion of the Stockholm peace accord on Hodayda Port.

Distinguished Participants I hail from a country that has resisted the most merciless economic terrorism, and has defended its right to independence and science and technology development.

The US government, while imposing extraterritorial sanctions and threats against other nations, has made a lot of efforts to deprive Iran from the advantages of participating in the global economy, and has resorted to international piracy by misusing the international banking system.

We Iranians have been the pioneer of freedom-seeking movements in the region, while seeking peace and progress for our nation as well as neighbors; and we have never surrendered to foreign aggression and imposition.

We cannot believe the invitation to negotiation of people who claim to have applied the harshest sanctions of history against the dignity and prosperity of our nation.

How someone can believe that the silent killing of a great nation and pressure on the life of 83 million Iranians especially women and children are welcomed by the American government officials who pride themselves on such pressures and exploit sanctions in an addictive manner against a spectrum of countries such as Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, China and Russia.

The Iranian nation will never ever forget and forgive these crimes and criminals.

Ladies and Gentlemen
The attitude of the incumbent US government towards the nuclear deal or the JCPOA not only violates the provisions of the UN Security Council Resolution 2231

but also constitutes a breach of the sovereignty and political and economic independence of all the world countries.

In spite of the American withdrawal from the JCPOA, and for one year, Iran remained fully faithful to all its nuclear commitments in accordance with the JCPOA.

Out of respect for the Security Council resolution, we provided Europe with the opportunity to fulfill its 11 commitments made to compensate the US withdrawal.

However, unfortunately, we only heard beautiful words while witnessing no effective measure.