Iran International
Iran’s partial restoration of international internet access after nearly three months of blackout has opened a new fight inside the ruling system, with hardliners accusing President Masoud Pezeshkian’s government of bypassing powerful security and cyberspace institutions.
The dispute centers on a “special headquarters” set up earlier this month under First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Aref to determine how and when broader access to the global internet should resume after wartime restrictions imposed during the recent conflict between Iran and Israel.
Hardliners have portrayed the body as a parallel institution created to sideline opponents inside the Supreme National Security Council and the Supreme Council of Cyberspace, two of Iran’s most influential policymaking bodies on security and internet governance.
Hardliners go to court
The backlash intensified after the headquarters voted on Monday to move forward with restoring international internet access.
In response, four hardline members of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace filed a complaint with Iran’s Administrative Justice Court, seeking to halt implementation of the decision and dissolve the newly formed body.
The court quickly ordered the suspension of the headquarters’ decisions pending a final review. But the government later moved ahead with reconnection, and within hours home internet services began returning in parts of the country, followed later by access through some mobile operators.
The legal complaint drew particular attention because of the people involved. Iranian media identified the four plaintiffs as figures affiliated with the ultra-conservative Paydari, or Steadfastness, camp who also serve on the Supreme Council of Cyberspace.
Reports also suggested that the complaint was encouraged by Mohammad-Amin Aghamiri, secretary of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace, who was appointed during the administration of former president Ebrahim Raisi. Reformist allies of Pezeshkian have repeatedly called for Aghamiri’s removal, but he has remained in office.
According to reports from inside the meeting chaired by Aref, nine members voted in favor of restoring broader internet access, while three opposed it. Those reportedly opposed included Aghamiri and Peyman Jebelli, head of Iran’s state broadcaster.
Both men have consistently opposed access to the global internet and have publicly supported a “Chinese-style” internet governance model, centered on a heavily controlled domestic network often described by critics as the “Iranian internet.”
Attacks on government
Hardline criticism has focused less on the technical restoration itself than on who had the authority to make the decision.
Hamshahri, a newspaper run by Tehran Municipality and heavily influenced by hardline factions, argued that restrictions should remain because cyberspace had become one of the main fronts of war.
“Is it really still unclear that today’s war is no longer fought only on land, in the air and at sea, and that cyberspace has become one of the principal battlefields?” the newspaper wrote.
The IRGC-linked Fars News Agency wrote that critics of the government were concerned that “legal mechanisms in the country’s macro-decisions” could gradually be weakened if the authority of other institutions were compromised.
Hamid Rasaee, a hardline member of parliament, wrote on X that the committee formed by Aref had submitted its resolution to the president for approval, “but Pezeshkian himself knows that although he is the head of the Supreme National Security Council, he has no authority to violate its resolutions."
Hamed Nikoonahad, a law professor at Shahid Beheshti University, also told state television that without a resolution from the Supreme National Security Council, the internet should not return to its previous state unless a higher authority, meaning the Supreme Leader, orders it.
Raja News, which reflects the views of Saeed Jalili and the Paydari Front, criticized the silence of other conservatives who support Pezeshkian’s administration. In a note titled “The government’s fabricated headquarters bypassed the Supreme National Security Council resolution,” it demanded that they take a clear position.
Partial and fragile access
The restoration remains limited.
The partial return is far from a full reopening. Internet monitor NetBlocks said access remains heavily filtered, with new restrictions on messaging platforms and app stores, while unstable connections continue to leave many users dependent on VPNs.
According to NetBlocks, access has recovered to slightly more than 60 percent of normal levels.
Neda, an interior designer in Tehran, told Iran International that past experience had made her skeptical of the sudden change. She recalled how internet access improved briefly after the January unrest, only to be restricted again when the war began.
She said nearly three months of total disconnection had changed public expectations.
“As the saying goes, they made us look at death so we would settle for a fever,” she said.
Tehran’s unveiling of a towering statue depicting the Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling before pre-Islamic Persian King Shapur I has renewed criticism of the Islamic Republic’s appeal to nationalist sentiment following the June war with Israel.
For over forty years, the theocracy purged ancient Persian history from schoolbooks, replacing it with post-Islamic narratives. But after the 12-day conflict with Israel, officials have turned to the distant pre-Islamic past to rally a divided society.
From murals of ancient kings and soldiers to patriotic songs added to Shi’ite mourning ceremonies performed before Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Tehran now embraces imagery once deemed heretical by its own revolutionary ethos.
'Kneel before Iran' campaign
Tehran’s Revolution (Enghelab) Square was the scene of an unusual spectacle on Friday as officials unveiled a massive bronze statue depicting Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling in submission before Sassanid King Shapur I, commemorating Iran’s victory at the Battle of Edessa (260 AD).
The event was held under the slogan “Kneel before Iran,” part of what authorities describe as a campaign to project “national unity and historical pride” following the June war with Israel.
Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani, a staunch ultraconservative, said on X: “Enmity with Great Iran can only end in kneeling before this historic nation.”
Municipal official Davood Goodarzi said the installation would be accompanied by visual displays depicting “other victories of Iranians over foreign aggressors,” including the defeat of British forces by local commander Rais-Ali Delvari, Mirza Kuchak Khan’s resistance against Russian troops, and Surena’s triumph over Rome at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BCE.
The goal, Goodarzi said, is “strengthening concepts such as national dignity, social unity, and Iranian identity.”
The statue, he said, would remain temporarily at Revolution Square before being moved to a city gateway “where it will stand as the first emblem of Iran before diplomats and foreign visitors.”
Unveiled women were allowed to attend the unveiling ceremony—an uncommon scene at events organized by Tehran’s ultra-hardline municipality.
The turn to the pre-Islamic past
The sharp reversal also recalls remarks once made by Khamenei. In a 2011 speech, he asserted that “all the great military victories of this nation came after Islam,” dismissing pre-Islamic accounts as “things that are not documented.”
In 1987, he had said that prophets triumphed over kings such as Cyrus and that “nothing remains of these monarchs in history but names remembered with derision.”
Nevertheless, pro-government social media accounts have now gone so far as to circulate posters equating Khamenei himself with Shapur, showing him standing with a staff as Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump kneel before him. The caption reads: “You will kneel before Iran.”
'Hypocrisy'
Pro-government figures have hailed the move as a patriotic success. Conservative political reporter Hossein Saremi posted: “Today’s grand Iranian gathering showed that people and the state share one essence: Iran itself. Nothing can take our homeland away.”
Others, however, called the spectacle “hypocrisy.” Journalist Gholamhossein Pashaei wrote on X: “Every year you close Pasargadae to stop people from celebrating Cyrus Day, yet you unveil Shapur’s statue in Enghelab Square with drums and fireworks during Fatimiyya (mourning period)!”
Dissident commentator Hamid Asafi called the ceremony “a perfect snapshot of the Islamic Republic’s contradictions.”
On Telegram he wrote: “A week ago they closed Cyrus’s tomb out of fear of the crowds, and now they glorify Shapur in the same breath. The Islamic Republic fears living history but poses for selfies with its corpse.”
He added: “They know people no longer respond to rosaries and sermons. That’s why they’ve brought history back to the stage—in a controlled costume. If they can’t erase the past, they’ll try to own it.”
The irony deepened as UNESCO formally recognized Cyrus’s Charter as one of the earliest human-rights documents.
President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on X: “Iran, the cradle of dialogue, justice, and coexistence, can still inspire peace today.”
Users swiftly replied, questioning how such pride could coexist with a government that blocks access to Cyrus’s tomb each year to those wishing to visit it on his birthday.