3 months ago
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The lad of Iran's President, who is besides a authorities adviser, called connected Saturday (January 25, 2026) for net connectivity to beryllium restored, informing that the much than two-week blackout determination would exacerbate anti-government sentiment.
Yousef Pezeshkian, whose begetter Masoud was elected President successful 2024, said "keeping the net unopen volition make dissatisfaction and widen the spread betwixt the radical and the government".
"This means those who were not and are not dissatisfied volition beryllium added to the database of the dissatisfied," helium wrote successful a Telegram station that was aboriginal picked up by the authoritative IRNA quality agency.
Such a risk, helium said, was greater than that of a instrumentality to protests if connectivity were restored.
Iran's much than 90 cardinal radical person been mostly chopped disconnected from the net since authorities imposed a blackout connected January 8, 2026 amid large protests sweeping the country.
Under the screen of the blackout, they launched a deadly crackdown connected protesters, with rights groups documenting respective 1000 dormant and the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights saying the last fig could apical 25,000.
The Iranian authorities has enactment the toll astatine 3,117, including 2,427 it has labelled "martyrs", a word utilized to separate members of the information forces and guiltless bystanders from those described by authorities arsenic "rioters" incited by the U.S. and Israel.
The younger Pezeshkian, who is simply a media advisor to the presidency, said helium did not cognize erstwhile entree to the net would beryllium restored.
He pointed to concerns astir the "release of videos and images related to past week's 'protests that turned violent'" arsenic a crushed the net remained chopped off, but criticised the logic.
Quoting a Persian proverb, helium posted "'He whose relationship is cleanable has thing to fearfulness from scrutiny'".
The President's lad blamed overseas interference for the protests' convulsive turn, but said "the information and instrumentality enforcement forces whitethorn person made mistakes that nary 1 intends to support and that indispensable beryllium addressed".
He went connected to accidental that "the merchandise of films is thing we volition person to look sooner oregon later. Shutting down the net won't lick anything; it volition conscionable postpone the issue."
