Iran ready to cooperate with Google, IT companies: official

Iran is negotiating with Google and some major international IT companies to facilitate their services in Iran and the Persian Gulf region, Nasrollah Jahangard, Iran's Deputy Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology, was quoted as saying by Press TV on Sunday.

Iran is in talks with Google to establish a version of its servers in the country which is "a normal practice as it will be economical for (IT) companies to be closer to their clients," Jahangard said, adding that similar negotiations are also underway with several other major U.S. and European internet companies.

"Iran will not interfere in the services of the companies, and their services in the Iranian market should be in line with Iranian laws," he said.

Iran is willing to help the IT enterprises, like Google, provide services to other countries in the region and the talks with some enterprises to enter Iranian market have made some progress, Jahangard said, without providing further details on the nature of cooperation.

Iranian users have access to Google services in the country. In June 2009, Google unveiled its Farsi translation service.

Some Iranian high ranking officials have actively encouraged adoption of domestic search engines and websites for blogging, email and social media.

Some conservative voices have called for the creation of a separate "Halal Internet," which would be free of contents that breach Islamic law. Endit