Statements in Meeting with Scientists, Experts, and Officials of the Country's Nuclear Industry

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Thanks be to God, the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon our master Muhammad and his pure family, especially the Remaining One of God on earth.

Welcome. I sincerely thank the scientists, officials, and activists of this industry who have prepared this good meeting and this excellent exhibition for us today; it was a very good exhibition, pleasing, encouraging, and heralding. I have a few points that I would like to share with you.

The first topic is about the importance of the nuclear industry. Of course, you know and are familiar with the significance of this industry, but many people do not have this familiarity and do not appreciate the nuclear industry, its various and extensive dimensions, and its impacts on people's lives and the country's progress. I have noted this down to mention in my remarks, and I have also told these dear brothers several times at this exhibition that it is your fault that you do not come and talk to the people and tell them what you are doing and what a great movement this collection has undertaken and is progressing. You know, but the people do not know; therefore, I will briefly state.

What can be said in summary is that this industry is important both in terms of the country's progress and capabilities in technical, economic, health, and other fields that bring dignity to the country and improve life for the people, and also in terms of the global political weight and international standing of the country; that is, when you have progress in various sectors of this industry and you are working and solving problems, the world's intelligence centers and many politicians and perhaps many scientists and scholars understand this, and this is a source of dignity for the country; thus, the progress of this industry is important both internationally and in terms of national weight and prestige. This is two aspects. The third aspect is in terms of the spirit of national self-confidence. You see, various propaganda devices of the enemies are working with all their might to portray the country as having no future, to discourage the youth; this is evident in cyberspace, on television, and in political statements. Your work is precisely the opposite of this enemy movement; that is, it injects the spirit of hope and self-confidence into the nation; the people, the youth, and the elites understand what fundamental and important fields they can discover, seize, and traverse.

Well, I have mentioned these three aspects regarding the importance of the nuclear industry. Given these aspects, everyone must acknowledge that the nuclear industry is one of the essential and important components of the country's credibility and strength and power. If you want a strong Iran, anyone who loves Iran, anyone who loves the Islamic Republic, anyone who loves the nation and demands the strength of this country must give importance to this part of the scientific, research, industrial, and work efforts that are being carried out here and regard it as credible. I say the reason for the enemies' focus on nuclear energy is the same; the reason you see we have been facing challenges for twenty years is the same; our nuclear challenge has been ongoing for twenty years now. Why have the enemies created this challenge? Why do they insist so much? Are we the only ones in the world pursuing nuclear efforts? Of course, they say they are afraid of our access to nuclear weapons! They are lying; they know we are not seeking nuclear weapons. The American intelligence community has repeatedly stated that Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons. Just a few months ago — in the last four or five months — they admitted twice that there is no evidence of Iran moving towards building nuclear weapons; they are right. Of course, our work is not out of fear of them or because of them; this is our belief. Nuclear weapons are used for mass killing, and we oppose mass killing; it is against our religion, against Islam; whether atomic, chemical, or any other types that may exist. In the wars during the time of the Prophet and Amir al-Mu'minin and the early days of Islam, it was advised to be careful not to cut off water from the people; at that time, the general movement against the general public was cutting off water, there were no chemical weapons and such things. Based on our Islamic principles, we do not want to pursue weapons; otherwise, if that were not the case and we wanted to go for it, they could not stop us, just as they have not been able to stop our nuclear advancements until now and will not be able to. If we wanted to create nuclear weapons, we would have done so; they know this. Therefore, the excuse of nuclear weapons is a lie; this is not the issue, something else is at stake. They know that movement in the nuclear industry is, in fact, the key to scientific advancements in various sectors of the country; they do not want this; they do not want us to have significant and encouraging advancements in various issues. Any progress that the Iranian nation makes, the thoughts of the Iranian nation, the path of the Iranian nation, the democracy of the Iranian nation, affects other nations; they do not want this, they are afraid of it; their goal is to prevent our country from progressing in one of the most important scientific fields, which is the nuclear field.

Well, this challenge that we have had with our enemies over the nuclear issue for twenty years has also clarified some truths; this twenty-year challenge has revealed several truths. The first truth is that it has shown the extraordinary ability and talent of our youth. What has been seen today — and of course, what is real is more than this — has all occurred under sanctions, under threats. Our scientists have constantly been threatened, our scientists have been assassinated; some have been assassinated, some have been threatened with assassination, yet these advancements have been achieved. Therefore, we are extraordinary in terms of human resources. We are far superior in terms of human resources compared to many countries in the world and above the world average; this has been demonstrated in other sectors as well; in the nuclear issue, in this nuclear industry, it has been fully demonstrated. This is one truth.

Another truth that has been revealed is the inhumane, unjust, and bullying logic of our opponents. They bully; that is, they have expectations from our country that go beyond the prevailing safeguards agreements in the world and bully us: "Do not do this, do not do that, do not go beyond a certain level for your facilities"; well, why? If you have no disease, no malice, do not want to threaten, why are you afraid that we have facilities in a certain invulnerable location? Their inhumane and unjust logic has become clear; this was another truth seen in this challenge.

Another truth was the uncertainty of our counterparts and opponents regarding their promises. Until now, in these many years — now those of you who have more experience in this nuclear industry are aware of what I am referring to — in various sectors, whether the governments that were our negotiating partners or the agency itself, they have repeatedly made promises, but they have not fulfilled those promises; promises that are impossible to realize. Therefore, one of the achievements of this twenty-year challenge is that we have understood that we cannot trust their promises and words; distrust. These are important achievements; consider them important. We have suffered many blows because of misplaced trusts. For a nation and the officials of a country to know and understand where to trust and where not to trust is very important; we have understood this. We have learned in these twenty years who can be trusted and who cannot. Well, this was regarding the importance of the nuclear issue. I mentioned that you may know these things better than we do; I want the people to know.

The second topic I want to mention is a reference to the advancements of this industry in the country. Of course, I am not technical and do not have sufficient information in these areas to say what the advancements are; it is your job to say what the advancements are; I want to express some generalities. First, let me say one sentence. In our political literature, the term "mustaz'afin" (the oppressed) and "istid'af" (oppression) has entered; we say, "This nation is an oppressed nation" or "Before the revolution, we were an oppressed nation." The term "mustaz'afin" is a term full of meaning. What does "mustaz'afin" mean? It means someone who has been kept weak. "Mustaz'afin" is different from "da'if" (weak); "da'if" means someone who is weak, "mustaz'afin" means someone who has been kept weak. Being kept weak, which is the meaning of the term "mustaz'afin," has two forms. Sometimes a power comes and dominates a nation, keeps it weak; like the colonial powers that kept colonized countries weak. The British kept the countries of the Indian subcontinent weak for many years. If you refer to the book "A Glimpse at World History" written by Nehru, the former Prime Minister of India, who was an informed and knowledgeable man, he describes how India was before the arrival of the British and what happened after their arrival, how much it regressed, how impoverished it became; this is colonialism. Therefore, one type of oppression is when a power keeps a nation behind, which is bad, a dangerous thing. More dangerous than this is the second type of oppression, which is that a nation believes itself to be weak, believes it is incapable, believes it cannot; this is very dangerous.

Most of you did not see the period before the revolution, did not understand it; we lived for years in that period, were familiar with its issues. You can also become familiar today; if you study, pay attention, you can understand what was happening back then. I tell you explicitly: we had both types of oppression before the revolution. First, we were kept weak; that is, just like this youth who, like Rezaei-Nejad, like Shahriari, like Fakhrizadeh, were raised during the revolution, they were also there before the revolution but did not reach this rank; they were not allowed, they were humiliated, and they prevented the progress of the Iranian nation. Those years, once in a meeting, by chance, I came into contact with one of the officials of that regime — because we did not have contact with them — that is, we sat in a meeting where he was present; I started criticizing some things — we were young and had a lot of patience for talking and discussing — his response was, "Sir! What are these things you are saying? We are sitting here, Europeans and others are working for us like servants, bringing goods, they make things, we use them." You see the logic? The logic was that they make things, we use them, so they are our servants. The Europeans took our oil, seized our market, and interfered in our politics to the maximum; this ignorance that our interlocutor had considered these as the pride of the nation! "Being kept behind" means this; this is one type.

The second type was that they had made the people, the youth, believe that we cannot. During the nationalization of the oil industry, at the time of Mossadegh, it was discussed in the National Assembly of that day that we should nationalize the oil industry, take it from the British; the Prime Minister of the Shah's regime — Hajj Ali Razmara, who was a military general — came to the Assembly and I think he said in the Assembly; I have in my mind that he came and said, "What are these things you are saying about nationalizing the oil industry and managing the Abadan refinery? Can we? An Iranian cannot make a pipe!" You do not know what a pipe is, you have not seen a pipe; a pipe is a clay vessel. You have seen a pipe; they made pipes from tin and copper and similar materials; there was a type of pipe in remote areas that I had seen, made of clay and baked earth; that is, the lowest and most trivial thing that a human can make. He said an Iranian cannot even make that pipe, at most he makes a pipe! That is how they indoctrinated. "Istid'af" means this; they wanted to make us believe that you, the Iranian, are incapable, why are you insisting unnecessarily, why are you trying. Therefore, during the Pahlavi regime, in those last years when they had somewhat better relations with the Soviet Union, they were buying wheat from America, and the Soviets were building their silos! That is, they were not capable of building silos, now dams and highways aside; that was the situation.

Well, the logic of the Westernizers of that day was that Iranians cannot, are incapable, Iranians have no ability to build. Now compare that view with the reality that exists today, with the work that our youth in the field of nuclear energy, in which you are involved and knowledgeable, have done. There are other fields as well; advancements have also occurred in other fields. In various sectors, in defense sectors, in nanotechnology, in many other important scientific disciplines, advancements have occurred similarly. This spirit today, this hope today, this enthusiasm that exists today in work, this manifested ability today, compare it with the situation that existed back then. Back then, the Westernizers humiliated the nation; today, the nation humiliates the Westernizers. Today, our nation humiliates those who have that thought and those delusions; with what does it humiliate them? With the very constructions that you have shown us here; this is the humiliation of the Westernizers; this shows their great mistake that they wanted to make us believe that the Iranian nation has no ability. For twenty years, the West has been working on our nuclear capability; today, our nuclear capabilities — that is, our nuclear inventory — is more than one hundred times what it was twenty years ago; that is, today we have more than one hundred times the nuclear inventory we had in 2003 when our nuclear challenge with the West began and the sanctions followed; those who are knowledgeable and informed judge it this way. This is the reality of our country. Of course, they have done everything in their power to stop this movement; they have committed crimes, assassinated, with their crimes took these dear scientists from us. They thought that if they took Shahriari and Ali-Mohammadi and the others from us, the work would stop; the work did not stop, thanks be to God, it progressed; that is, our youth, our scientists, have shown that this industry has become indigenous, belongs to the nation, and this can no longer be taken away from this nation. They now also admit this.

One side note I want to mention here; it is a side note, but it is important. You see, it has been about five hundred years since the event known in the West as the "Renaissance" — the change in the lives of Westerners; in the Renaissance, the fundamental line that existed was the confrontation between science and religion; that is, they wanted to say that if you want to progress scientifically, you must set aside religion and spirituality; this was the most important or one of the most important main lines of the Western movement in the Renaissance, which occurred about five hundred years ago. Today, in the Islamic Republic, which is a country of spirituality and is "Islamic Republic," the most important scientific works are being carried out, competing with those who have been working in these scientific fields for many years. Who are the ones carrying out this work? Faithful youth, those who pray at night; they are the ones advancing the work; that is, science and spirituality have intertwined in this way. This is an important point that must be noted.

The third topic I want to present, and my time is running out, consists of several recommendations. The first recommendation — which I have noted here but fortunately, based on the explanations given at this exhibition, I see that there is attention to this — is that the capacity of nuclear knowledge must be utilized for various aspects of people's lives. The overflow of nuclear discussions is beneficial for industry, health, agriculture, the environment, desalination, disease treatment, and everything in society. Fortunately, the Atomic Energy Organization is doing this work and is not limited to energy; it is also addressing these essential and important tasks, and I emphasize and insist that you give importance to this, pursue it, and enable people's lives to benefit from the scientific advancements related to the nuclear industry.

The next recommendation is to share this matter — that is, this enormous capacity — with the people. What do people understand about nuclear energy? They understand the issue of energy; they understand that you want to establish a power generation or energy production center. This is not the issue; the issue is that this industry can have a significant and beneficial presence in all aspects of people's lives. Tell this to the people so that they appreciate this industry and understand that what they said is "our undeniable right" is truly their undeniable right. Of course, the media has a role, various agencies have roles, but you are the main agents of this work; communicate with the people in various ways.

Another recommendation is that nuclear products and services should be commercialized, which, of course, in the reports given to me, it was mentioned that some of them have been commercialized; this should be expanded. Our advancements have good markets in the world and can truly be utilized for the country's economy and income. Cooperation should be established with like-minded countries that do not oppose us in this matter, which was mentioned in some of these reports that some collaborations are being made; either they requested or we wanted. This should also be pursued; cooperation should be established, and we should utilize the existing global resources and scientific advancements.

The next topic is the twenty thousand megawatts issue that we announced a few years ago; take this seriously. Suppose we are currently using about one thousand megawatts of nuclear electricity and there is a design for more, but the goal is twenty thousand megawatts; out of about eighty to ninety thousand megawatts that the country will need in the medium and intermediate future, at least twenty thousand megawatts must be nuclear, which has financial, biological, and environmental benefits; this should be pursued seriously and in a planned manner. Here I have noted, I also told friends above that work should be done on low-capacity and small-capacity power plants. Well, now work has been done on high-capacity power plants over one thousand megawatts, experiences have been gained, but this experience can also be applied to low-capacity power plants; I have heard that today it is common in the world to work more on low-capacity power plants; two hundred megawatts, one hundred megawatts, and even less than one hundred megawatts. A few years ago, I asked one of these countries that have this technology, I said you have a thirty-megawatt power plant, give it to us; he said we do not have it, I said why, I have a report that you have it; the minister was sitting there, he asked, they answered something, we understood that he admitted they have it, but they do not give it; it is difficult for them. We need these low-capacity and small-capacity power plants for various sectors; pursue this.

My next recommendation is about our human resources. Human resources are very important. The students who are currently working in this field are very few; I do not want to mention the number, but at least we should have ten times more students. There are specific reasons why they are few; well, it is difficult, it has its own challenges; these difficulties must be compensated. Maximum use should be made of the existing scientists, specialists; their protection should be taken seriously. In any case, honoring human resources and preserving human resources in this industry is very important. Of course, the performance of the organization in attracting human resources and managing these resources is also important; how to manage human resources in terms of various evaluations from different aspects is also important. After all, the enemy is trying in these areas, as you saw, and friends have felt the enemy's blow; in some places, they infiltrate, sabotage, which they have done, and we all saw. You must seriously take care. Human resources are very valuable; preserve them, and in their evaluation, exercise maximum consideration and capability and precision.

One recommendation regarding some challenges of the organization; for example, communication with the agency. My strong recommendation is to maintain communication with the agency; that is, maintain cooperation and interaction with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Of course, within the framework of safeguard regulations; that is, do not go beyond what is necessary and only do what we must do according to safeguard regulations. From the beginning, my recommendation to the various officials who have come and gone in this industry over the past twenty-some years has always been the same; we have said you must cooperate with the nuclear agency.

Do not violate the law of the Parliament; this is also my next recommendation. The Parliament has passed a law, this law is in our favor, in favor of the country, and in favor of the nuclear industry. Some think this law creates problems for the country; they are mistaken. This law is a good law; it is a law, and the law must be implemented; there is no discussion. Do not violate the law. Whether in the accesses that others expect, or in the information you provide, act according to this law.

Sometimes false claims and bullying demands are raised; do not yield. The organization should not yield to bullying demands; stand firm on your positions. Do what you are obliged to do, but do not yield to what they demand from you in a bullying manner and do not accept it. Sometimes they make claims that are false; do not accept these claims: "At such a time, you did such a thing"; no, do not yield to their false claims either. Now, specifically, a commitment was made last Esfand (March) that according to the report I saw — this report is actually new — the other side has not fulfilled this commitment; we have fulfilled it; the other side in these commitments is the agency; I heard they have not fulfilled it. In any case, pay attention.

Another important recommendation: the existing industrial infrastructure of the nuclear industry should not be tampered with. Over the years, managers and officials and activists of this industry have done important work, created significant infrastructure. You may want to make agreements in some areas; that is fine, agree, but do not tamper with the infrastructure, do not let it be destroyed; these are the products of others' efforts.

Well, you have sent Takbir (Allahu Akbar). May God grant you all success. We were, of course, prepared to visit this exhibition for 45 minutes — this is the program that was given to me — it doubled; that is, we visited the exhibition for an hour and a half, and now we have been at your service. God willing, may you be successful and supported. May God grant you success.

O Lord! By the right of Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, grant Your grace and kindness to our dear youth, our good managers, our valuable activists in this industry, and make them successful and honored in this world and the hereafter. O Lord! Make our intentions in what we say, in what we do, divine intentions and accept them from us.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings.