Speaking on Tuesday at ceremony for official operation of Tehran-North Freeway, Dr Rouhani said, "The people of Iran will not beg and yield to the enemies and sanctions have not been able to affect the will of Iranian engineers, workers and managers for completing the important Tehran-North Freeway project”.

He continued, "All revenues received from Phase 1 will be spent for the construction of the second phase and one route of the second phase is expected to be put to operation until the end of the government’s term of office”.

Parts of President Hassan Rouhani’s speech are as follows:

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Today is a very happy day for the great Iranian people. We practically built this project during the sanctions, and we are proud that the sanctions did not affect the will of our engineers, workers and managers and all sections of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, Mostazafan Foundation of all those involved in completing this crucial project.

Of course, sanctions may have naturally caused delays in our scheduling, but important projects have never stopped.

You see, our government took office in 2013 when we were under tough sanctions; sanctions that had started since 2011 and 2012.

From the first days of my presidency, I called Mr Forouzandeh, who was the then head of Mostazafan Foundation, to see the blueprints. At that time, 17 per cent of the project was carried out and we had to decide for the remaining 83 per cent.

I was involved with the project since 1996, and the Late Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani made decisions for the important project.

The project was assigned to Mostazafan Foundation and Mr Forouzandeh and then Mr Saeedikia worked hard for completing the project. Wherever Mr Fattah goes, he works with all his power.

Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mr Eslami is a tireless Minister. Any time of day we call him, he is at work.

I would like to thank all those who have taken the responsibility and did this important job.

We are all aware how much people’s life and time is important. The fact that a new road shortens the travel time by 1.5 hours is invaluable. We are all responsible towards people’s life and happiness.

Our enemies always want us to be under pressure and have problems. There are some incidents that are out of our control; like the floods and earthquake, which we cannot do anything about.

This year was a difficult one; from our dear General Soleimani’s martyrdom to what happened in Kerman and those who lost their lives in the plane crash, which was very sad for us.

But our people were present at every stage with courage. That is, they did not surrender to sanctions and did not beg. The people of Iran will not beg and yield to the enemies.

Sanctions have not been able to affect the will of Iranian engineers, workers and managers for completing the important Tehran-North Freeway project.

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