USA: approves the export of internet services to Iran, Sudan, Cuba
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WASHINGTON - The United States eased trade sanctions they impose on Iran, Sudan and Cuba to permit the export of certain communication services online and promote free expression in those countries, says an official press release published Monday.
- The rules governing commercial transactions in the United States towards Iran, Sudan and Cuba have been amended, wrote the Treasury Department.
The amendments allow "the export of certain communications services online, such as instant messaging, email and social networking applications" to these three countries, the department text added.
"We support freedom of expression," said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, explaining that the new rules specifically allow the Iranians "have other sources of information about what is happening in their country ".
"We continue to support Iranians who seek to circumvent censorship and be able to communicate without being blocked by their own government," she said.
For the Treasury, this decision is "consistent with the strong commitment of government in favor of universal rights of all citizens in the world" and it will now be "easier for people in Iran, Sudan and Cuba to use Internet to communicate with each other and the world."
Iranian, Cuban and Sudanese officials are, to varying degrees, very restrictive on freedom of expression on the internet and there is no evidence that the measures announced by the United States will be able to permit circumvention of the censorship in those countries.
Opponents of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had widely used Internet during the uproar caused by his re-election last June.
The images of the death of Agha Neda-Soltan, a young woman of 26 who died in the street after being shot during a demonstration against the Iranian government, had gone around the world through the sharing site YouTube videos.
In Cuba, dissident journalist Yoani Sanchez writes a blog (www.desdecuba.com / generaciony) widely read abroad, in which she recounts the horrors of her day.
The United States prohibit their nationals virtually all trade with Iran since 1997. With the crisis over Iran's nuclear program, the government regularly takes several years more targeted measures aimed at cutting the supply routes for Iran.
The U.S. sanctions against Sudan are in place since 1997. Initially started in retaliation against countries supporting terrorism (the country had offered sanctuary to Osama bin Laden), they were tightened to press against Khartoum government with the crisis in Darfur.
Complex, they prohibit the export of almost any goods or services of the United States to the countries with the exception of Darfur and southern regions, victims of civil war from 1983 to 2005.
The United States imposed on Cuba economic embargo since 1962. Since the arrival of Barack Obama in the White House in early 2009, the U.S. government put an end to restrictions on travel by Cuban-Americans on the island as well as remittances from Cuban exiled to their families in the country.
Ennaharonline/ M. O.
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