Officials In Iran Getting Unrestricted Internet Amid General Filtering
Leaked documents show that Iran’s ministries of agriculture, communications, and industry have in separate letters requested to have access to unrestricted internet.
Leaked documents show that Iran’s ministries of agriculture, communications, and industry have in separate letters requested to have access to unrestricted internet.
The letters by government institutions show that the "classification of the Internet in Iran" is expanding at an unprecedented speed. This means while the public has very restricted access, officials are able to have full access.
In one of these letters, an official at the agriculture ministry asked the communications ministry to provide "free, unfiltered and high-speed" internet to some people listed in the letter.
He also included his own phone number in the list, saying that one of the reasons for the request is to "monitor the news in cyberspace"; an activity that ordinary people are deprived of due to restrictions imposed on social networks and Farsi news websites based abroad.
In another letter signed by Omid Qalibaf, advisor to the minister and Spokesperson of the Ministry of Industry, has sent his number asking the communications ministry to activate unrestricted internet on his mobile phone.
On the same day, Mohammad Ehsan Kharamid, the head of the Public Relations Center of the Ministry of Communications, sent a letter to the National Center for Cyberspace, requesting that the attached phone numbers be granted "Journalists Internet" which has no restrictions.
Since 2016, journalists close to the regime have unrestricted access to the Internet, while the government filtered more apps and websites during protests in recent months.
Several Iranian hardliners have threatened the EU of repercussions inside Iran and in the region as well as in Europe if the EU designates the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization.
On Thursday, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling on member states to designate the IRGC as a terrorist group. The overwhelming vote at the EU Parliament came after a massive rally by tens of thousands of Iranian expats in Strasbourg on Monday and condemnation of the IRGC's violent suppression of protesters in Iran.
Ironically, the hardliner officials and politicians who threaten the EU provide further proof of the IRGC's terrorist nature in their bellicose statements.
Ultraconservative lawmaker Mohammad Nabavian said on Wednesday that the Iranian Parliament will put Germany, France and the UK on Iran's terror list if the EU resolution goes any further. Meanwhile, he threatened that "the defenders of the resistance in the region" know very well how to treat those designated as terrorists by Tehran. By "resistance" forces, Nabavian was referring to Iran's proxy groups in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon including the Hezbollah, which have a proven track record of attacking US and EU interests in the region or taking hostages.
Nabavian further threatened that if Iran's interests are endangered by Europe, the interests of EU member states, their supporters, their companies, will be threatened no matter where they are located."
Ultraconservatives had also vandalized the British and French embassy buildings in Tehran during the past weeks. Nabavian further advised Europeans to "to take Iran's threats seriously."
Referring to former US President Donald Trump administration's designation of the IRGC as a terrorist group, Nabavian said it is not standard practice in the world to sanction the defensive forces of a country.
Meanwhile, IRGC General and hardliner lawmaker Esmail Kowsari warned EU member states: "You may not be able to tolerate the consequences of designating IRGC as a terrorist organization." Kowsari claimed that "The plan put the IRGC on Europe's list of terrorist organizations is a US-Israeli conspiracy and there is no logic behind it."
He suggested that "EU member states should preserve their independence from the United States and should oppose any action against the IRGC."Kowsari added that "Those who want Iran to return to the JCPOA know very well that these actions can put an end to any dialogue." He further warned that if the Eu wishes to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization, it should consider the heavy repercussions of such an act."
This threat has some believers in the West, including the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell who is said to oppose designation the IRGC for fear of jeopardizing the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal, or JCPOA.
Kowsari further warned that "The ITRGC is one of the world's most powerful military organizations. Designating it as a terrorist group will not restrict its actions but it might change the situation."
Meanwhile, in another development, Hossein Shariatmadari, the editor of hardliner Kayhan daily in Iran threatened Sweden that IRGC security forces can easily abduct Swedish security officials and bring them to Iran for trial.
He made the outlandish statement while speaking about the trial of a former Iranian judiciary official convicted in Sweden on the charges of participating in killing thousands of dissidents in Iranian prisons in 1988.
In an interview with Eghtesad News, Shariatmadari mentioned other cases in which Iranian security forces abducted individuals from other countries for trial in Iran.
