Iran's protest to the Norwegian ambassador as the representative of the country "registering the Starlink network"
On Sunday, October 12, the Director General of International Peace and Security of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic summoned the Norwegian ambassador to Tehran to announce an "official protest" against Starlink satellite internet systems in Iran.
🔸The Ministry of Foreign Affairs asks the representative of Norway, as "the country registering the Starlink network in the International Telecommunication Union, ITU," to address this ministry regarding "Norway's inaction regarding the unauthorized activity of this system in Iranian territory."
According to the ISNA news agency, Mohammad Hassannejad, Director General of the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also called for "effective and immediate action by the Norwegian government to stop operations that violate Iran's sovereignty and national security through the unauthorized activity of the Starlink system." So far, Iran has protested to the Radio Regulations Board of the Telecommunication Union several times regarding the activity of Starlink in Iran, including in the latest meeting of this board in July of this year.
In the report of this meeting regarding the investigation of the demand of the Islamic Republic, it is clearly mentioned that the Iranian government is unable to identify or locate all Starlink terminals in Iran's vast territory due to "the small size of this tool."
This is a point that Iran's Deputy Minister of Communications also admitted in an interview last week. According to Mohammad Hafez Hakami, since "Starlink, as a new agnostic tool, is basically no longer based on our network," the government has to cut off all power supplies in an area to disconnect it.
Hakami also warned that "taking over Starlink will put the final nail in the coffin of cyberspace governance." Over the past decade, the Islamic Republic has resorted to cutting off people's internet access as the first trick to deal with public protests, a trick that could become completely ineffective with the spread of Starlink in the country.
The Starlink network in Iran has once again been in the center of attention since the Israeli ambassador to the UN approached the Iranian representative with a device from this system on the floor of the General Assembly and drew the attention of all media.
Mohammad Amin Aghamiri, the head of the National Cyberspace Center, claimed on Monday, October 13, that the Islamic Republic managed to disable Starlink terminals "in a managed way" during the protests in January of last year.
According to him, the Islamic Republic also has other technologies to detect and prevent the activity of these terminals, but did not provide details on how to disable Starlink or its success rate. Aghamiri also said that if satellite internet infrastructure is used "as a tool of war," these infrastructures can be considered a "legitimate military target" and added that the Islamic Republic is ready to deal with such a situation.
The head of the National Virtual Space Center also admitted that "artificial intelligence has entered various fields such as education, health, content production, and media, and various devices are involved in it."
According to him, "therefore, a regulatory mechanism must be planned in accordance with these conditions."