Addressing the bumper crowd of people in Rafsanjan, Kerman, on Monday, President Hassan Rouhani referred to the nuclear deal with the six world powers and America’s withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and said, “We had different options ahead of us; some said that we should withdraw, and some said that we should stay in the deal, and some suggested something in the middle. In practice, we found that the middle way was in our favour”.

Dr. Rouhani said that “with the continuation of the JCPOA, Iran’s arms embargo will be lifted next year and we will achieve a major political, security and defence goal”, adding, “Iran was banned for years by a UN resolution from buying weapons, and we could not sell any weapons”.

“If we stay in the JCPOA according to Resolution 2231, Iran’s arms embargo will be lifted next year and we can easily buy or export our required weapons, which is one of the major effects of the nuclear deal,” he continued.

The president said that if we withdraw from the JCPOA, it will not bear fruit next year and the Security Council resolutions will return, saying, “We must think and find out where the interests of the country are. Is it in our best interest to be 100% committed to the deal while the other sides stay idle vis-à-vis it? Definitely not. So we chose a path in between”.

Dr Rouhani reiterated, “The Islamic Republic of Iran has chosen a path in between to preserve the JCPOA but at the same time we will reduce what we have pledged in the agreement step by step”.

“Today, our nuclear power higher than any other time,” he said, “During this period of effort, we did research and developed in the field of nuclear energy. The head of the Atomic Energy Organisation announced that a few years back, we had five types of centrifuges, but today we have 15 types of centrifuges”.

“This means that we have made progress and moved ahead. This is the path of moderation, which means that while protecting the agreement, we also uphold the rights of the nation and do not succumb to the enemies’ pressures,” continued the President, adding, that the massive inauguration of projects in Yazd province as well as 14 trillion tomans worth of project in Kerman show that we have not sat idle and we are not hoping anything from outside.

He also mentioned Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani and said, “Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani is known not only to the Iranian people but also to the people of the region and the world, and it can be said that Hashemi was a well-known political figure in the world and all nations of the region and the world knew him. This is an honour for this land”.

“Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani was a forethoughtful religious intellectual and a distinguished figure in the Islamic Revolution,” he continued.

Stating that the entire Iranian people were involved in the Islamic Revolution, he said, “But some were more distinguished, like the late Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was one of the pioneers of the Islamic Revolution”.

“Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani’s key teaching to us was moderation,” he said, adding, “In our society, there are different opinions and tastes. Choosing what route to take has always been a matter of disagreement”.