In 2013, Hassan Rouhani was elected president of Iran. At that time and for many years prior to that, the United States and other nations of the world looked on Iran with suspicion, believing that it exported extremism, that it was virulently anti-Western, and that it was attempting to acquire or develop nuclear weapons, which would pose a threat to its neighbors and to the Western world. Relations between the West and Iran were fraught with tension, skepticism, and distrust. Efforts were underway to persuade Iran to call a halt to its nuclear program, which Iran insisted was intended for peaceful purposes but which many officials and members of the intelligence services believed had the goal of producing weapons of mass destruction—the weapons of terrorists. In the wake of his election, Rouhani, characterized by many as a moderate, tried to convince the nations of the world that Iran’s intentions were peaceful and that it was opposed to terrorism and extremism. To that end, he submitted this document to the General Assembly of the United Nations and its then-current secretary-general, Sam Kahamba Kutesa of Uganda.