TEHRAN (Iran News) – President Ebrahim Raisi has said Iran’s ready for talks over reviving the 2015 nuclear deal but it won’t negotiate under pressure.
In his first interview with IRIB as president, Raisi added, he had announced before that negotiation over the nuclear agreement otherwise known as the JCPOA was on his administration’s agenda.
He however noted, Iran wants all sanctions lifted, adding he will not retreat an iota from the rights of the Iranian people.
The Iranian president rejected the idea of talks for the sake of talks and said Tehran wants result-based negotiations to get the sanctions removed and improve people’s livelihoods.
He also spoke of Afghanistan, saying the US oppression inflicted a big wound on Afghanistan.
He cited international organizations as saying 30 thousand Afghan children have been maimed in the US war.
Raisi said Iran has hosted 3 million Afghan refugees whose rights have been infringed by the US-led occupation of their country.
The president reiterated that the way forward in Afghanistan is to form a government elected by Afghans themselves.
He added, “Afghanistan security is our security and our priority is to have relations with neighbors”.
Raisi said he held talks with more than 50 officials from different countries over Afghanistan and the discussions will continue.
Raisi also touched on economic opportunities in Iran and urged Iranians living abroad to invest inside their country.
Raisi said government bodies have been instructed to receive foreign investments.
In other remarks, Raisi said a big percentage of Iran’s production capacity remains intact, “40 percent of factories are not operating due to different reasons, Iran plans to ramp up production and the prospects are very promising.”
Raisi urged manufacturers to increase their production as plans are afoot to begin exports of Iranian goods.
He also said that people’s damaged confidence should be recovered by remaining true to promises in a way that people feel government’s honesty.
Raisi referred to the first and foremost issue that has entangled the country, namely the coronavirus pandemic, praising health staff, the scientists who devoted themselves to produce vaccines for the virus and the people who voluntarily came to help the health system.
He also condoled with those people who have lost their loved ones because of the virus and underlined that his administration recognized the pandemic as a priority which needed an immediate but wise solution.
However, the administration came to the assessment that domestic production couldn’t meet demands, Raisi added, as 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccine was certainly needed.
The President noted that he included the issues of importing vaccines in his conversations with some world leaders and the import of 40 million doses was secured this way.
Any decision to reopen schools and education centers requires vaccination of vast majority of people, Raisi said as the school year is looming in Iran. He added that this necessitates buying COVID-19 vaccines from foreign sources, besides supporting domestic production.
He also called on people to observe health protocols, including keeping social distance and reducing contacts outside their homes.
The President vowed to supply 40 million doses of coronavirus vaccines by September 22, as he has tasked Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Health Ministry and the Basij forces as well as a number of other governmental bodies with prioritizing the supply of national and foreign currency for this purpose.
People’s damaged confidence must be restored, he highlighted, adding that this could be fulfilled by being true to promises and people should be informed of details if there was an obstacle in the way.
Raisi said that he has created a department within the president’s office to follow up decisions made during provincial trips to address problems in any region in the country and the unit has been tasked with reporting on the issue to the president.
He ensured Iranians that there was no problem with basic goods in the country, as there have been measures taken during his less than a month into office.
The President noted that there was a dormant capacity in production sector, amounting to 40 percent of plants and workshops, and said his administration has a plan on the agenda to reactivate the latent wealth.
The mastermind of the administration’s economic performance is a group of people in and outside the government, Raisi underlined, adding that they would survey the condition and present their solutions to the administration’s economic headquarters so that they would be able to decide accordingly.
The administration will make no out-of-the-blue decision, he insisted, the people would be informed continually and all economic plans and discussions within the administration would be supervised by the First Vice President who has been appointed as the coordinator of the administration’s economic team.
Investing in Iran is secure, foreseeable and assessed, the President underlined, inviting investors in Iran and from abroad to invest, as the administration is activating tourism and sea economy.
The President insisted on his campaign promise of building 1,000,000 houses every year and said that this was the minimum of the country’s current need and the required legislation was in place to fulfil the promise.
On his other campaign promise, Raisi said that he has tasked his administration staff to locate corruption venues and holes as a special duty and that he was going to announce an anti-corruption charter.
He persisted that he would be closely in contact with ordinary people, as he has been during his previous job as Chief of the Judiciary and his trip to two provinces as President.
