Iran’s ex-president Rouhani: All citizens should enjoy civil rights

“The country belongs to all of us, not to a particular group or faction or party. Iran belongs to all Iranians; Shiites, Sunnis, Armenians, Jews, Zoroastrians and those following other faiths,” said Rouhani in a meeting with members of the Central Council of the Neday-e-Iranian Party.

“Even some people may not accept the Constitution, but they should be able to live in the country. We should provide the means for everyone to live. We can’t say they should not live because they are opposed to us. Everyone should enjoy civil rights,” the former president added.

Opposition is growing over the recent comments by an expert who, in TV show, claimed Iran belongs to followers of a specific mindset in the country.

“We have now reached a point where we do not even talk about a clear issue like Gaza,” Rouhani noted in other comments.

“As far as this tough issue is concerned, we are seeing for the first time that people in Iran are divided on that,” he explained.

“This unprecedented matter and this social and cultural rift and divided opinion about the region and the world is very dangerous.” he said.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Rouhani warned against human resources being jeopardized.“The biggest catastrophe is the threats posed to human assets,” he said.

“They admit university staff in droves [without paying attention to quality],” the former president said.

“I don’t approve of going to extremes to focus either on the younger generation or on the elderly,” he said, in an indirect reference to the recent hiring of non-academic figures by some universities.