Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi


Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi is an Iranian politician and former intelligence officer who is currently serving as the Minister of Information and Communications Technology in the administration of President Hassan Rouhani. He gained vote of confidence from the parliament on 20 August 2017, with 152 yeas, 120 nays, 7 abstentions and 9 invalid votes.
He is currently the youngest member of the cabinet of Iran, as well as the first Iranian minister born after the Iranian Revolution.

Career

Azari Jahromi worked at the Ministry of Intelligence from 2002 to 2009, where he for some time held managerial positions and was involved in crackdown of 2009 election protests. From 2009 to 2014, he served as general manager of the communications systems security department at the Communication Regulatory Authority. He then became ex-officio vice minister of information and communications technology, in his capacity as the chairman of Telecommunications Infrastructure Company. Jahrami was also a non-executive member of the board of directors at RighTel between 2014 and 2016.

U.S. sanctions

In November 2019, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Azari "for his role in the Iranian regime’s widescale internet censorship," freezing any of his U.S. assets and banning U.S. persons from doing business with him.
U.S. Treasury Department stated that Azari Jahrmi is a former intelligence officer whose job has been arrest and imprisonment of opposition activists.