Tehran (IP) - The Minister of Information and Communications Technology has said the 'national information network' is the fruit of efforts of young Iranian scientists and experts, and helps Iran's economy to grow.

Iran Press/Iran news: Iran's Minister of Information and CommunicationsTechnology Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi, answering questions by reporters and journalists, pointed to the need to pay attention to the National Information Network and said: "We have not forgotten that the United States withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and imposed sanctions against the Iranian people especially in the field of medicinal drugs and food."

"Through withdrawing from the agreement, the US banned many cloud services from providing services to Iranian companies and eliminated Iranian applications. Can we sit idly by for the US to tell us which company can we grow and which cannot? We want to take our share of the world," he added according to Iran Press.

"After recent sanctions, we have taken our startups to the Republic of Azerbaijan," he said. "If we don't have internet, how can we do that?"

The minister stated that he will talk to people about the National Information Network at the right time. The goal of this network is to help the economy grow, not cut off the Internet, as the internet can be thought of as "oxygen for economic development".

It makes no sense to say that we want to cut off the Internet. The Internet will never be cut off. The recent cuts were due to security reasons, the minister concluded. 101/211/219

Read More:

Iran's ICT minister apologizes for Internet shut-down repercussions

Private sector should support startups: ICT Minister

Iran thwarts 33 million cyber-attacks: ICT minister

Iran to send an Astronaut into Space: ICT Minister