At a speech in Tehran University, Hassan Rouhani defended his administration and promised that the problems will be resolved in the distant future. He also claimed that the current American administration is the most vicious one since the establishment of the Islamic Republic, and their ultimate goal is to delegitimize the Islamic Republic.

Parts of Rouhani’s speech:

• Talk doesn’t heal, hope does.
• We can’t be in denial about our problems. In the near future things might get worse, but in distant future things will get better.
• In the past 40 years, there hasn’t been an American administration more vicious than the current one towards the Islamic Republic. Economic war is their secondary goal. Their ultimate goal is to delegitimize the Islamic Republic.
• We can defeat the United States in many areas. Politically, the Islamic Republic has defeated the United States in the past few months.
• Exiting the JCPOA is like destroying a wall. It’s not difficult. What matters is whether it’s in our best interest to stay in it or not; whether we will win politically or the United States.
• Right now, European companies are in a bind. If they stop dealing with us, EU will punish them, if they deal with us, the US will sanction them.
• America has done all it could before the November 4th. November 4th means nothing so it shouldn’t worry anyone.
• We did not start this economic war. If this government wasn’t in charge right now, we would have the same problems, but instead of the United States, we were facing the world.
• In my New York visit, the prime minister of a European country told me that “if five years ago someone told me that one day Europe would support the Islamic Republic against the United States, I wouldn’t have believed it. But it has happened.”

At the same time, a group of Tehran University and Tehran Medical University students held a demonstration in Tehran University. They were holding signs with slogans such as “universities are not barracks”, “free thought doesn’t work without a platform”, and “they have silenced us while bragging with our votes”.