Around 100 Satellite Internet Links Active In Iran: Musk
American tycoon Elon Musk says the use of satellite internet services in Iran has increased and around 100 Starlink devicesare active in the country now.
American tycoon Elon Musk says the use of satellite internet services in Iran has increased and around 100 Starlink devicesare active in the country now.
SpaceX Chief Executive said in a tweet on Monday that “approaching 100 Starlinks active in Iran”, three months after he confirmed he would activate the service in the country to help Iranians circumvent internet restrictions imposed by the government amid nationwide protests.
Back in September Twitter billionaire had announced he would activate Starlink in Iran as part of the United States effort “to advance internet freedom” and facilitate “the free flow of information” to Iranians.
The Iranian regime has been severely restricting Internet access in general and access to popular social media platforms, such as Instagram, that play a key role in protester communications. These restrictions have caused many problems for those who rely on social media to promote their businesses and hugely damaged e-commerce.
The Islamic Republic has been witnessing mass protests that erupted after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody in mid-September for wearing what the authorities deem “inappropriate attire.”
The government is extremely nervous that people use the Internet and social media to share news and images about protests, possibly motivating a larger segment of the population to join demonstrations.
Earlier this year, several US lawmakers and the former US official Victoria Coates, who served as senior advisor to the energy secretary in the Trump administration, called on entrepreneur Elon Musk to activate Starlink satellite access for Iranians.
Reports on social media during September and October said that private entities have smuggled Starlink reception equipment into Iran.
Mahan commercial flight 063, carrying Ali Daei's wife and daughter, which had left Tehran airport at 11:15 am local time for Dubai, was grounded by security personnel at Kish airport in a strange and rare act.
Eyewitnesses have told Iran International that the security agents forced Daei’s family to disembark saying that they cannot leave the country.
In response to the incident, Daei said, “Today, my wife and daughter legally boarded a plane from Imam Khomeini Airport [in Tehran] to go to Dubai, but the plane was returned from Dubai and landed in Kish to drop off my daughter and wife.”
He added that they are not arrested, but if the family was banned from leaving Iran, the police should have told them upon passport check.
Ali Daei is a hero for Iranians as he was an international soccer legend and the captain of the national team from 2000-2006. His record of 109 international goals was broken only 2021 by Cristiano Ronaldo.
“No one has given me an answer. I really don't know what the reason is for such moves. Did they want to arrest a terrorist? My wife and daughter were going to Dubai for a trip and their return flight was on Monday,” noted Daei.
“It’s hard to believe! They passed through the passport control and boarded the plane quite legally, but they [security forces] returned so many passengers from Dubai to drop off my wife and daughter. If there was a problem, why didn't they arrest them? If there is no problem, why did they bring them back?” Daei reacted.
However, state-run news agencies Tasnim and ISNA have quoted an “informed source” as saying that Ali Daei's wife had been barred from leaving Iran “because of inviting people to go on nationwide strikes, but she had managed to revoke the ban through an unlawful way.”
Daei's wife was barred from traveling to Dubai before leaving Iran upon a Judicial order and a decision by the National Security Council headed by the President, the news agencies claimed.
The Islamic Republic's Judiciary alleges that Daei's wife had previously pledged to inform security organs of her decision to travel abroad in advance. However, once the relevant authorities learned about the flight, the plane carrying her was forced to land in Kish.
It’s not clear where the plane has headed after dropping off Daei’s wife and daughter – whether it continued to Dubai or flew back to Tehran.
Many other legendary Iranian soccer players such as Ali Karimi, who is abroad and Mahdi Mahdavi-Kia, Karim Bagheri, Ahmad Reza Abedzadeh, and others are supporting the protest movement.
Earlier this month, security forces sealed a jewelry shop and restaurant belonging to Ali Daei after he shut down his businesses to join anti-government strikes.
Daei had also revealed he was threatened after throwing his weight behind the anti-regime protests triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini in mid-September.
The nationwide protests in Iran have continued for 101 days with regime forces killing hundreds of people and detaining thousands of others, including football players and celebrities.
Earlier, Daei decided not to travel to Qatar to attend the World Cup 2022 due to the brutality and deadly force used by the government against unarmed protesters.
In a press conference on Sunday, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said one of the “enemies’ plots” in the past few months was breaking the norms and redlines of the Islamic regime. He went on to threaten that people who unveil will be strictly confronted.
Emphasizing that observing hijab – or Islamic dress code – is legally mandatory, he said, "When the law mandates the observance of hijab for women in public places within the borders of the Islamic Republic, we cannot say that [the issue] is personal."
The law’s Montazeri referred to are what more than 50 percent of the people in Iran oppose, but they have no peaceful way of trying to change them, because the regime considers any such attempt a violation of the fundamental precepts of the clerical rule.
The attorney-general added that he believes the way to deal with those who remove the compulsory hijab "needs planning" and "cultural work” before resorting to legal action.
He repeated the regime’s propaganda line that describes the current wave of antigovernment protests sparked by death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini as a ploy by the West. The United States, United Kingdom, Israel and Saudi Arabia are called “enemies” in the discourse of the clerical regime.
Mahsa Amini was arrested by a patrol van enforcing hijab on streets and suffered a head trauma during her arrest and died in hospital a few days later, triggering the boldest challenge the regime has faced in its over 40 years of existence.
Montazeri also claimed that the final results of the investigation regarding the case of Mahsa Amini's death have not yet been given to her family.
His remarks came as he had earlier pretended it had abolished the the so-called ‘morality police,’. However, his Sunday remarks showed that the whole volte face was only a sham to control the nationwide unrest.
Many activists, such as US-based Masih Alinejad, debunked Montazeri’s claim as a sheer publicity stunt or even misinformation spread by a dictatorial regime that is about to fall.
Following the propaganda stunt about disbanding the ‘morality police’, foreign and Iranian media are full of interpretations of how the regime plans to both enforce the dress code regulations and at the same time appease protesters.
Western governments, including the UK, the US, and Canada, added the hijab law enforcement unit to their list of sanctioned entities. Despite the regime killing about 500 protesters and hanging two, Iran’s police chief threatened the people earlier in December with more "decisive" response in the coming days.
Many women in Iran are now appearing in public without the mandatory veil and regular police are not interfering in a sign that authorities are either unwilling to risk further confrontation with the public or find it impossible to deal with so many women undermining the rule all at the same time. Police forces have also become over-stretched during protests and many have resigned or have applied for early retirement.
