Dr Rouhani also announced the commencement of Iran’s 4th step in reducing its commitments under the JCPOA, saying, “We announce to the P4+1 and our friends that our new activities will be under the monitoring of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Speaking on Tuesday at the opening ceremony of Azadi Innovation Factory, Dr Hassan Rouhani said that generating 300,000 jobs at knowledge enterprises is valuable, adding, “Knowledge enterprises bring about science, income, power, welfare and dignity, and we must create links between investors and startups”.

Dr Hassan Rouhani described the operation of Azadi Innovation Factory as a source of pride and said, “It is very good and important to abandon the traditional way of doing today’s business”.

The President said that normally, factories in various industrial sectors such as steel, copper, gas, petroleum, petrochemical and textile are opened in the country, adding, “But today, a new kind of factory is opened”.

Dr Rouhani added, "This complex is an innovation factory and this is very important because it offers new ideas and innovations, while in conventional factories, existing ideas are put into operation”.

The president reiterated, "In this startups factory, hard-working young people work, and accelerators help them to keep the business running".

Dr Rouhani said that the development of innovative activities requires culture, infrastructure and collaboration, saying, "Consultation, coherence, and cooperation are essential to achieve the desired result".

Referring to reports presented at a meeting with managers of the complex and accelerators and startup executives, the President said, "We usually follow industrialised and advanced countries in the field of industry, technology and science, but in this complex, we can have innovation in the sense that nobody has done it yet and we are the first”.

Dr Rouhani pointed out that anyone who writes a doctoral dissertation needs to present something new and come up with a new idea, adding, "On this basis, we can be a pioneer in some affairs, so that we can take the idea to the next level and operate, produce and deliver it to domestic and foreign markets”.

The president emphasised, "We are proud that a great and valuable work has been done by the 11th and 12th governments in these fields; of course, these efforts may not have been complete or less than expected by the younger generation, but overall very good work has been done".

Stating that all the startups operating at the factory are somehow related to ICT and bandwidth improvement, he said, "If there was no bandwidth, many of these things would not have been possible. The government has been under a lot of pressure to offer the bandwidth required for this”.

"We should try to reduce the problems and obstacles in every area,” he said, adding that when a freeway is constructed somewhere, it creates some problems alongside facilitating things.

The President of the Islamic Republic of Iran also went on to state, “Resistance lays the ground for negotiation, and negotiation takes advantage of resistance; there is no contradiction between them”.

In another part of his speech, the President referred to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s steps in reducing JCPOA commitments and said, “In the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the amount of stockpiled uranium had a 300kg limit, based on which we had to sell the surplus. In the first step, we lifted this limit and are stockpiling whatever we enrich”.

“In the JCPOA, we pledged not to exceed enrichment above 3.67%, but in the second step, we reduced our commitment regarding this enrichment limit and now we are not committed to enriching only at this level,” he continued.

The President added, “In the third step, we went beyond the frameworks set for R&D, and we will make any kind of scientific developments, centrifuge production, and quantities and chains”.

Dr Rouhani also announced the commencement of Iran’s 4th step in reducing its commitments under the JCPOA, saying, “We announce to the P4+1 and our friends that our new activities will be under the monitoring of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and this step is reversible like the previous ones".

“Whenever they return to their January 1, 2017 commitments, we will uphold our commitments made at this date as well,” he continued.

The President said that under the JCPOA, 1044 centrifuges were agreed to spin in Fordow without injection of any gas, stating, "From tomorrow, injecting gas to the centrifuges in Fordow will begin, a move that may raise concerns. We are aware of their concerns vis-à-vis Fordow, but whenever they fulfil their obligations, this step can be reversed and they should know that we cannot stay unilaterally committed , without them acting”.

Dr Rouhani stated that we are committed to all the negotiations behind the closed doors aimed at moving forward, stating, “Some countries have tried to negotiate an agreement before today, but we have to take the 4th step tomorrow. Within the next two months, there is a chance for negotiation, and if we find the right solution to lift the metals and oil sanctions, ensuring our easy oil sales and receiving our money in our banks, we are fully prepared to return to the previous state”.

The President stressed, “We announced that America must officially announce that the sanctions are not right and that we are ready to negotiate in the presence of the P5+1 presidents”.

Regarding the latest visit to the United Nations’ headquarters in New York, the President said, “We had two goals in that visit. The first one was to prove to the world that the Americans are not honest. We convinced them that we are ready for negotiation and we are not afraid of it, as it has been our area of expertise in the past 40 years”.

Pointing out that some countries wanted to imply that Iran attacked Saudi Arabia and has launched a war in the region, he added, "Our second goal in the visit was to explain that the attacks on Saudi Arabia had nothing to do with Iran, but because of the war between them and Yemen”.

The president reiterated, "Instead of those allegations, we put forward the Hormuz Peace Endeavour (HOPE) initiative. There was a time in the region that the only country that said they had initiatives was the US, but today it is Iran that announces it has a peace plan".

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