Iranian President Hassan Rouhani urged Iran to lift the restrictions on academic freedoms and to let Iranian scholars take part in international conferences, as well as, challenging the country's hard-line factions, on Monday, the Associated Press reported.
According to the AP, there is an increasing tension between the moderate leaning supporters of Rouhani and the hard-line forces that are questioning the President's objective during the Geneva talks happening this week.
In recent years, many professors and student activists at Iranian universities were expelled or went into forced retirement under pressure from hard-line groups, according to the AP. Rouhani believes scholars should not be blocked from international gatherings, and says it is "scientific diplomacy".
Rouhani has also called for the lifting of the prohibition on social media access to students and urged Iranian police to loosen the Islamic dress code for women.
Some Iranian hard-liners are against any agreement with the United States on matters of nuclear programs during the Geneva talks with the six powers, the AP reported.
"This is a shame for an administration that its students and professors are not able to express their viewpoints. This administration will not tolerate factional pressures on universities," Rouhani said, according to the AP. "I urge all security apparatuses, including the intelligence ministry, to open the way for this diplomacy. Trust the universities."
Currently, hard-liners have plans of organizing an anti-U.S. rally similar to the storming of the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979, which was planned by militant students, on Nov. 4.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's top policy maker, has endorsed Rouhani's proposal and outreach to the U.S., but according to the AP, head of state Ali Khamenei has final say and is among some of Rouhani's critics.
