Disrupting terrorist networks: Why internet was cut in Iran

Pars Today – As violence escalated and public and private property was damaged in Iran by organized terrorist elements backed by foreign adversaries, Iran’s security institutions decided to shut down international internet access.

According to Pars Today, Iranian military and law enforcement forces, who in the early days of the protests stood alongside the Iranian people to safeguard peaceful demonstrations, gradually became aware of the presence of armed elements who had concealed themselves among the public and were steering the protests toward violence.

Initially, the armed forces exercised restraint toward these groups out of consideration for the people. However, over time it became clear that these individuals were not merely a number of rioters, but organized terrorist groups whose coordination was carried out from outside the country. Accordingly, Iran’s Ministry of Communications issued a statement informing citizens: “Based on the assessment of the competent security authorities and due to the prevailing conditions in the country, international internet access has been suspended.”

While Iranian citizens retained access to the national internet for their daily activities, international internet access was cut in order to sever terrorists’ links with their organizers outside Iran and to help restore security across the country.

After the internet was cut, the lack of coordination among the terrorists inside the country, combined with the severed connection to their foreign organizers, led to a reduction in the scale of destruction and chaos caused by the terrorists. This, in turn, created an opportunity to identify and apprehend foreign operatives and domestic infiltrators.

This phase of restoring security in Iran was carried out with the support and cooperation of the people, who greatly aided the military and law enforcement forces by reporting information that helped identify the armed terrorists.

This public cooperation and solidarity arose when the Iranian people witnessed firsthand the destruction of public and private property and the killing of their fellow citizens—both among the protesters and the security forces—by the terrorists. There was no doubt that no Iranian would willingly participate in the destruction of their own country. From this point, the protesting citizens separated themselves from the armed infiltrators.

As a result, despite the difficulties caused by the internet shutdown, the people prefer to endure these inconveniences until full security is restored across the country.

However, the hidden hands behind the terrorist activities in Iran—whose plans were disrupted by the internet shutdown—reacted strongly out of desperation to this security measure. So much so that headlines in many Hebrew and Western media outlets focused on the internet cut in Iran.