TEHRAN, Nov 23_The United States has imposed sanctions on Iran's Minister of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi over the nationwide shutting down of the internet during the recent protests against fuel price hikes in the country.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club(YJC)_In a press release on Friday, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said it took action against Azari Jahromi for his role in the "widescale internet censorship" in Iran.
It added that all property and interests in property of the Iranian minister that are in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons must be blocked and reported to OFAC.
OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all dealings by US persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of blocked or designated persons, it said.
Abolfazl Hosseinbeigi, who sits on the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the Iranian parliament, told the ISNA agency on Wednesday that the main reason for cutting internet access across Iran last weekend was that a group of “saboteurs” were using online services like navigation and maps to coordinate their activities in large cities.
A member of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, the body that ordered the internet blackout on Saturday, said that restoration of services would need a “collective decision” at the highest levels of the Iranian government.
The Iranian government raised gasoline prices on November 15 in order to moderate the national consumption rate, which stands at 110 million liters per day, 40 million liters per day above the maximum domestic requirement.