President Rouhani addressed a meeting of provincial governors on Wednesday, where he recommended that all governors should emulate the cabinet in their conducts as administrators of government in provinces. Mr. Rouhani’s recommendation implied adherence to his presidential promises in 2013 to instill hope into the public sphere; “the sum of actions of local government officials across the country should be addressing and solving the people’s problems and hearing their grievances,” he told the meeting. “Iran is the subject of much envy in terms of stability and security enjoyed inside the borders in a region mired in conflict and violence,” Rouhani emphasized.
Mr. Rouhani hailed public scrutiny in form of what he believed should be ‘constructive criticism’ by the public as well as by elites. He acknowledge that near the election time, parties and political groupings would embark on the criticism of the government; “we take honor to live in a Revolutionary country which mixes Islamic ideals with the politics and the public life; in such a country, no place should be given to deception, lying, and dispiriting public, a thing which would jeopardize the public trust upon the Revolution,” he denounced.
“Instilling the public with hatred and defiling the character of political figures without providing legal proof is a crime and the Judiciary should address the case not in the name of the defamed character, but in the name of blurring the image of the Revolution and its ideals of honesty and integrity,” Rouhani told the meeting.
Part of Rouhani’s address was his serious assertion about the inordinate salary bills which had been a subject of much anxiety and propaganda in the media and speculations made about possible famous names being in the many lists the different circles claimed to have found in official government organizations leaked to the social media. “The cabinet addressed and watched the issue closely and seriously and we welcomed the role social media played in disseminating the information otherwise kept unnoticed by vested interests; we should ensure the public that transparency and public rights constitute a fundamental guiding principle for the government and that we will continue to protect the public treasury stronger than before,” he asserted.
On JCPOA, Rouhani believed that the deal was thought by Tehran as contributing factor to bring economic conditions to a terra firma of stability with removing of sanctions; “great opportunities have been created by JCPOA; we were expecting, from among a host of other benefits, doing safe and modern transactions with international banking system to avoid 19th century-like methods of money transfer. The expectation is now fulfilled, with more than 500 agency agreements signed with different foreign banks which will greatly help the banking system to join the mainstream of financial world,” he rejoiced to say.
Rouhani however admitted that a number of 5+1 countries were not to be trusted, reiterating a theme dominant in country’s foreign policy rhetoric vis-à-vis the difficulties of JCPOA implementation and a mentality which blamed the west especially the US for the scarcity of success of the deal; “we trust only a number of parties to the nuclear deal and naturally, it is not the case for some other members of the 5+1; despite the grievances voiced by our foreign policy machinery, we feel honored by our people who feel the country came triumphant from the negotiations where our negotiators achieved a great feat of securing our nuclear rights without violence; this is unprecedented in political and diplomatic history of our country, a feat to which the Leader of the Islamic Revolution and the people are the major contributors,” Rouhani told the meeting.
The last issue Rouhani addressed was respecting the public as well as private sphere so much endeared by the constitution; “the rights of all citizens, regardless of their ethnic and religious origins should be respected and no ethnic group should be subject to vilification by virtue of their ethnicity and religion,” he concluded.
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