MUNICH – “The West should understand that the Iranian people are not a second grade nation,” Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani stated on Saturday.

In a meeting with a group of Iranians living in Munich, he pointed out that the Iranian nation is famed for its “great civilization”.
Larijani was in Germany to take part in the Munich security conference.
He said Iranians even contributed greatly to the “Arab culture”, the scholar-turned politician noted.
Larijani congratulated the Iranian nationals present in the meeting on the 30th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.
After the revolution, the U.S. and some European states reneged on their nuclear deals with Iran and this was the reason that the country became determined to gain access to nuclear technology, Larijani told Iranian nationals on the second day of his visit to Germany.
The senior lawmaker said that despite numerous problems, the Iranian leaders made the right decision to develop nuclear technology.
And now after 20 years Iran has overcome major hurdles and succeeded to gain access to “nuclear science” and enemies can no longer pursue the “policy of denial” toward the country, he noted.
Larijani said certain Western states seek to “impose a ceiling” on Iran’s development of sciences, but they must understand that “Iranian people are not second grade humans.”
Iran’s former nuclear negotiator went on to say that Western powers have blown Iran’s nuclear issue out of all proportion and now they must put it right.
He also pointed to Iran’s recent satellite launch, saying in the Munich conference some officials complained about Iran’s move.
However, if their remarks are to be considered, the study of physics must be banned in Iranian schools because “Iranian children may one day become physicists and do strange things”.
Iran successfully launched its first domestically-produced satellite into orbit on February 2. The satellite is intended for telecommunications and research activities.