Thought base of freedom: Iran President

'The very first bases of freedom is thought,' said President Rouhani, adding, 'Technology is one fruit of science and it can bring lead to progress only if sciences progress.' 

'If we don’t advance in one particular area, it means there are no pillars to build a house on.'

If students and professors are not free to discuss issues, there won't be any progress, said Rouhani. 

'Many think infrastructures are buildings, loans or money. They are not. The first base is freedom. The government should provide the physical substructures, but the legal ones are more important.'

He said, 'If there is science and progress in the US, that's because of different nationalities working there; there are many Iranians in the US. They reached science and progress when they didn’t have a wall around them.'

'Any country that walls itself in, they will implode.'

Touching on the issue of the US sanctions on Iran, he said, 'Some countries use sanctions to reach what they want. They realize that in order to slow down growth of science and technology, they need to block the paths through sanctions. '

'But sanctions give us incentives. They create problems, though.'