Words of Father Miguel d'Escoto Brockman during the "Meeting of Syrian National Dialogue" held in Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran, november 18, 2012.
 
I have come, dear brothers and sisters, from practically half around this troubled world of ours, from a very small but courageous and God-loving country that has experienced many decades of foreign intervention, suffered untold death, suffering and destruction but which has finally managed, by God's grace and the truly inspired leadership of President Daniel Ortega and the heroic struggle of our people, to free itself from the claws of imperialism that had enslaved it for more than 70 years and is now finally a free and independent nation.
 
That country, dear brothers and sisters, is Nicaragua, one of the smallest and most empoverished countries in Latin America due to enturies of imperial explotation and unfair trade.
 
Now, thank God, Nicaragua is finally really independent and we are living the best years in the last 200 years since our independence from Spain and foreign intervention.
 
I know, dear brothers and sisters, that Syrians, at least some Syrians, want change. But all countries in the world want change and, most of all, the terrorist, murderous and genocidal United States empire. That aspiration is what was responsible for Barack Obama's election as the first black president of the United States. But, as you all know only too well, that change promised by Obama never materialized.
 
The US is a country totally under the control of the Industrial Military Complex and Wall Street, those are the ones who really call the shots and, that means, that the US will continue to be fully committed to its military doctrine of Full Spectrum Dominance, the revealing title coined by the Pentagon itself right after World War II. They are obviously committed not only to the consolidation of a planetary empire, but one that also includes total control of the atmosphere and outer space as well. If there is another name, other than diabolic, for that kind of national objective, I honestly do not know what that name could be.
 
I am profoundly grateful to His Excellency Ali Akbar Salehi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, for kindly inviting me to this extremely important meeting. But I actually didn't come to make a speech. I came, dear Syrian brothers and sisters to entreat you all, to beg you, in the name of God and from the bottom of my heart to pay no attention to those pushing for war as the means to attain your objectives.
 
Those who are pushing for war are mainly non-Syrians, they hate Syria and have a vested interest in having your over twelve thousand years old culture and civilization totally destroyed, as has already been the case in Libya and in Iraq as a result of "friendly" and "humanitarian" US bombing, demolition and genocide.  All US crimes are said to be friendly and humanitarian. Any one who says that those countries that have suffered such criminal foreign intervention are better of today than they were before, is either a total fool or just simply doesn't know the facts.
 
In God's name, dear brothers and sisters, hear the voice of reason, hear, above all, the voice of God talking to you within your souls, opt for dialogue as the only viable means for achiving lasting and true peace and prosperity.
 
I have full confidence in President Bashar al-Assad as being an open minded person who hopes and wants the best for Syria as I, want to believe and do believe, the vast majority of you really want. Please, I beg of you, give peace a chance!  Reject the evil invitation to become tools or instruments of those who want to destroy Syria for their own evil personal or national objetives.  They are nothing but murderers lead by the terrorist, criminal and genocidal U. S. empire and its main cohorts, the United Kingdom, France and expansionist and racist sionism.
 
It could well be that my frank style of speaking has turned you off. If that is so I am very sorry, but if not, I want you all to know my own personal love for all of you, as well as Nicaragua's love for all our Syrian brothers and sisters, is endless.  Despite my old age and my rather decrepit state of health, I will be willing to continue working with you as long as you would want me to.  Could Nicaragua become a venue for some meeting such as this? You would  obviously be most welcome!
 
May God's mercy not abandon us in our plight, as we seek peace and prosperity for Syria, Through dialogue among Syrians and without any kind of malicious foreign intervention. I say this because we must recognize all such foreign intervention as malicious and we must all repudiate and condemn it.