RT:

Tehran plans to remove its key ministries and state bodies from the Internet next month, calling the worldwide web “untrustworthy.” The action is the first phase in a planned Iranian project to replace the Internet with a domestic intranet.

The country’s key ministries will be unplugged from the global network as early as September, in a move Tehran said is aimed at protecting sensitive intelligence.

Iran’s Ministry of Communications and Technology announced earlier this year that it would launch a domestic intranet to replace the Web. The system will reportedly be operational in 18 months.

“The establishment of the national intelligence network will create a situation where the precious intelligence of the country won’t be accessible to these powers,” Iranian Minister of Communication and Information Technology Reza Taqipour said on Sunday.

Taqipour went on to blast the monopoly control of the Internet by a handful of Western countries.

“The Internet should not be in the hands of one or two specific countries,” Iran’s FARS news agency quoted him as saying at a conference at Tehran’s Amir Kabir University. Taqipour explained his argument by citing how the Internet has become an indispensable element of economic, security and social policy.

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