https://etemadonline.com/content/429941/اجرای-طرح-اینترنت-ملی-در-سند-همکاری-25-ساله-با-چین-آمده
Translated from Farsi to English by Google Translate
The head of the Interior and Councils Commission in the 10th parliament announced China’s cooperation with Iran to create a national Internet and said: “In the draft document of the 25-year cooperation between Iran and China, this issue is mentioned as cooperation between the two countries to develop cyberspace.”
Referring to the MPs’ plan to “nationalize the Internet”, Mohammad Saleh Jokar said: “This is not a discussion for yesterday and today.” According to the Sixth Plan, the government is obliged to nationalize the country’s Internet. The recent plan of the deputies is to insist on the implementation of this issue. Fortunately, we do not have the infrastructure problem to implement this plan, and our only major problem is the lack of servers in the country.
This principled representative of the 11th parliament continued: Today, billions of tomans of costs are imposed on the country due to the Internet and our national resources are spent on foreign networks. The national internet debate is a wide-ranging debate from the past, and today it can create a good opportunity for us to seize it.
“Our discussion on the national Internet is not a restriction at all,” he said, stressing that the national Internet poses no threat to Internet businesses. We happen to be looking for more business opportunities on internal networks. We need to take threats away from the Internet and turn them into opportunities.
Asked if foreign social networks were being used in the national internet plan, Jokar said: "Our discussion is not like that at all. Today, many European and Asian countries and neighboring countries have domestic Internet, and why should we not use these experiences? Through the national Internet, we can manage cyberspace well and avoid paying exorbitant costs.
He also said about the plan to block foreign platforms in case of non-cooperation and observance of Iranian laws and protocols [my emphasis]: “The plan given to the parliament seeks to be able to manage and curb cyberspace threats.” Today, in many countries, there is a national information network, but unfortunately, this has not yet happened in our country.
Jokar continued: “In the discussion of social networks, we believe that these networks should respect the protocols and laws of the country.” It is not right for social networks to be independent and for whatever they want to do, or for them to be managed by server host countries like the United States or Canada.
According to him, social networks must have some commitments. Social networks should not be a threat to the security of countries. We almost saw ISIL forces coordinating through these social networks.
This principled member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly in response to the question that if social networks such as WhatsApp and Instagram do not follow the protocols, will they be filtered? “It does not mean that all social networks are filtered,” he said. Today, a country like Turkey has a number of restrictions on social media. Therefore, there must be such a capacity to limit social networks.
The head of the Internal Affairs Commission and the councils in the 10th parliament, in response to the question whether filtering is repeated in the national internet network, said: “People in the national internet can easily use sites and databases and can also easily use these sites in this context.” And filtered malicious databases.
Asked whether Iran would use the Internet with countries such as China and Russia to build a national Internet network, he said: “In the draft document of the 25-year cooperation between Iran and China, this issue is mentioned under the title of cooperation between the two countries to develop cyberspace.” [my emphasis] Of course, if a country wants to cooperate with us in this regard, we will welcome it.
Jokar also said in response to the question whether the Minister of Communications Azari Jahromi, according to some representatives, is really seriously opposed to the national Internet plan, said: This has been happening until today. But there is an interpretation in this field that happens to be very clear; We have all the necessary infrastructure for the national Internet, but we do not have the will to do it.