"Access to sciences is one of the primary rights of the world nations. The government or citizens of a country should not be deprived of knowledge under false pretexts,” Rouhani told a ministerial conference of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) on science and technology.
"Scientific apartheid has become an instrument for imposing underdevelopment and maintaining the cycle of poverty and unemployment in developing countries,” he said.
"This aggressive attitude is a clear example of scientific discrimination which can target any developing country,” the president stated.
Rouhani said independent countries should unite and stand against such measures.
He further touched on sanctions imposed on Iran, saying the Iranians have faced the heaviest pressures over the past 12 years for pursuing their right to achieve modern knowledge of peaceful nuclear technology.
Rouhani said scientific and technological cooperation among NAM states will boost their prosperity and serve their ultimate goal which is establishment of peace, tranquility and equality.
Delegates from 58 countries and international bodies, including 31 science ministers of the NAM member states, are attending the Tehran conference.
The aim of the gathering is to formulate policies for scientific and technological development of NAM countries.
Addressing the meeting, Rouhani said no one can claim Iran’s nuclear program has a non-peaceful nature.
Separately, Rouhani dismissed as a "big lie” Western allegations that the country has been pursuing a secret nuclear program, saying that Tehran has shown the transparency of its peaceful nuclear work to the word.
"That they say Iran has had secret activities in this respect is a big lie; We first turned to Europeans to get the  uranium enrichment technology; If we wanted to conceal our activities we wouldn’t raise these issues with a Western country,” he said at a conference marking National Engineers' Day.
He said the European country refused to give Iran the technology to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. "We also discussed the issue with Russia for a long time…. But finally they didn’t accept to give us enrichment technology; We also talked with Chinese and all these show that we have not concealed our work; We talked to the whole world and each country made an excuse,” Rouhani said.
Rouhani further hailed efforts made by Iranian scientists and engineers in achieving the uranium enrichment know-how and installing centrifuges.
President Rouhani further praised efforts by Iranian diplomats present in the nuclear talks with the P5+1 group over Tehran's nuclear program.
Rouhani said the make-up of the country’s nuclear negotiating team shows Tehran’s determination to have constructive interaction with the world, describing the country’s nuclear negotiators as the soldiers of Iran’s diplomatic frontline.