Iranian Leader made the remarks in a meeting with a group of academic elites and top scientific talents on Wednesday.

The Supreme Leader's remarks are as follows:

"Nuclear science is beneficial but since it’s not been coupled with love for humanity, it led to nuclear disasters. Despite having the ability to develop nukes, we firmly and bravely avoided it, for building and keeping nukes, like using them, is haram."

The Supreme Leader said that science if not coupled with the upright intellectual approach, will become dangerous, adding, "That’s why we believe academic elites should seriously pursue ‘religion’ and ‘nationality’. We want science but we don’t want our universities to be a reproduction of some U.S. university."

Ayatollah Khamenei said that Iran’s intellectuals can play an important role in public diplomacy.

"Connecting with West Asia, World of Islam, even the world’s truth-seeking academics, including those in Europe or America can lead to the promotion of pure and humane knowledge," he added.

The Supreme Leader noted that the Islamic revolution has offered the world a 3rd option which is neither socialist nor liberal democracy.

"We should be able to attract hearts by our logical words and actions to this path beneficial to mankind and save nations from the infiltration of West’s deviating culture," Ayatollah Khamenei further noted.

7129**2050

Follow us on Twitter @IrnaEnglish