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Iran Plunged Into Internet Blackout, Protests Spread, As Trump Issues Fresh Warning

Tyler Durden's Photo
by Tyler Durden
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By all accounts, protests and unrest have been spreading rapidly in Iran, now over a week-and-a-half into economic and anti-government protests which have begun to grind the country to a halt. On Thursday the demonstrations have disrupted life in the capital in a big way, and there are reports of nationwide internet and cellular outages.

Anti-government slogans and calls to "rise up" have been observed in Tehran and elsewhere, and in some places supporters of exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi have actually heeded his repeat public calls to take to the streets (though this 'pro-Shah' contingent likely only remains an extreme minority at this stage).

Source: Iran International

NetBlocks has alleged that Iranian authorities have intentionally blocked internet access to the citizenry, possibly as a precursor to a bigger crackdown after dozens have been reported dead (some 45, based on unverified numbers, but which includes some security personnel) - but this remains speculation. 

The internet outages were first reported in western city of Kermanshah earlier in the day Thursday, but into the night hours (local), the NY Times is freshly describing, "As the government cracked down in various cities, internet connectivity data showed an abrupt and near-total drop in connection levels in Iran on Thursday afternoon, according to NetBlocks, an internet monitoring group, and the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Internet Outage Detection and Analysis database."

The country is nearly completely offline and in the dark as far as online communication and access. This is likely to only compound the nation's problems, and stir up more sustained protests, after late last month a sudden currency slide amid already difficult economic conditions resulted in key central Tehran shops shuttering in protest and panic. US-led sanctions have loomed large over all of this.

Iranian Masoud Pezeshkian on Thursday called for restraint among police and security forces in dealing with the raging crowds. "Any violent or coercive behavior should be avoided," said Pezeshkian in an online statement. He called for "utmost restraint" as well as "dialogue, engagement and listening to the people’s demands."

People are watching President Trump's reactions very closely, especially coming off his giving the order for military forces to go into Venezuela to oust Maduro. He has reiterated that the United States will strike "very hard" if Iran starts killing protesters.

However, he has also lately seemed to suggest that violence or deaths during "crowd control" can be ambiguous and hard to assess. This perhaps gives him an 'out' at a moment the US hawks are circling, and members of his own cabinet might be pressuring toward action.

But a fresh statement from Vice President J.D. Vance has just injected something new and raised the stakes in a significant way. He's calling for the Iranians to enter fresh negotiations with Washington, or as he put it in fresh remarks to "actually have a real negotiation" over its nuclear program (which was set-back in a big way by the last June US bombing raid on three key nuclear development sites).

Tehran has every reason to not trust Washington at this point, for all the obvious reasons and fact that it was just bombed last summer at the very moment after it entered new dialogue with the US.

Iran's leadership is increasingly pointing to the violence being unleashed on security forces and police by at least some of the protesters and rioters. Also, the scenario of Mossad or CIA operatives who might be exacerbating the situation remains a real and plausible threat. At the same time, there has appeared evidence purporting to show violent surprise attacks on police or security officials...

Various external monitors have said the protests have now spread to over 100 cities and towns spanning all 31 of Iran’s provinces. At least 2,200 demonstrators have been detained, according to reports.

BBC Persian meanwhile says that it has independently verified the names and deaths of 21 individuals, while Iranian officials have announced that five security personnel have been killed. This suggests that at least in some locales, anti-government groups could become armed. There are some external powers - like Israel - that would probably applaud such internal fracturing, which would only serve to further weaken the Islamic Republic.

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