US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday Washington’s decision to allow exports of Web tools to Iran was intended to allow Iranians to “communicate without being blocked by their own government.”
The US Treasury Department on Monday eased sanctions on “rogue states” Iran, Cuba and Sudan to allow exports by US companies of services related to Web browsing, blogging, e-mail, instant messaging, chat, social networking and photo and movie-sharing.
“We’re supporting the right of free expression,” Clinton told reporters.
She said the move would “provide Internet tools to citizens of Iran so that they can communicate, so that they can have other sources of information about what is going on inside their country.”
“We believe that [if] Iran calls itself a democracy. It should act like one and that means respecting the right to free expression and assembly of its own people,” Clinton said.
“And in the 21st century, expression and assembly are carried out on the Internet as well as in person,” she said.
“So we’re going to continue to support those Iranians who wish to circumvent and be able to communicate without being blocked by their own government,” Clinton said.
US Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin said the Treasury Department’s move “will enable Iranian, Sudanese and Cuban citizens to exercise their most basic rights.”
Lifting the ban on exports of software and services “will make it easier for individuals in Iran, Sudan and Cuba to use the Internet to communicate with each other and with the outside world,” Wolin said in a statement.
“As recent events in Iran have shown, personal Internet-based communications like e-mail, instant messaging and social networking are powerful tools,” Wolin said.
“This software will foster and support the free flow of information — a basic human right — for all Iranians,” he said.
“At the same time as we take these steps, the administration will continue aggressively to enforce existing sanctions and to work with our international partners to increase the pressure on the government of Iran to meet its international obligations,” Wolin said.
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