The secretary of Iran's Supreme Council of Cyberspace, Mohammad Amin Aghamiri, has described Starlink as a "tool of war" used by Iran's enemies, Al Jazeera reported.
Mr Aghamiri said Iran had several systems for cutting off Starlink satellite terminals, but he did not say what they were, according to Al Jazeera.
Iran International, an opposition news outlet, said he spoke on Tuesday. It reported that he also said Iran could manage terminals from both the ground and space. Iran International was the only outlet to report that claim, and it has not been independently confirmed.
Al Jazeera said one of the systems was deployed during protests in January. It also reported that the authorities were prepared to share the technology with aligned countries. No independent technical confirmation of these capabilities was found.
According to Al Jazeera, Mr Aghamiri described Starlink as "a tool used for command and control by the enemy, for espionage and information gathering". He also urged Iranians to use domestic platforms.
Al Jazeera said he hinted at possible new restrictions on the global internet. No date for any new measures was reported.
Al Jazeera also reported on a document about possibly unblocking some platforms. It said the document gave no timeline, and that media reports said its implementation had been halted by wars and protests.
Some outlets reported that terminals were also being intercepted through patrols, drone searches and raids on sales points. News.az and ua.news, citing Al Jazeera, carried those reports. The claim could not be confirmed directly.
No response from Starlink or its operator, SpaceX, appeared in the reports reviewed.
Some outlets have described the story as a threat of the death penalty for Starlink users. The reports reviewed do not show that Mr Aghamiri made such a threat in these remarks.
Al Jazeera said the penalties come from existing law. Using or possessing a terminal carries a baseline sentence of six months to two years in prison, while importing or distributing terminals carries up to five years.
The death penalty is possible if use is paired with national security or espionage charges, according to Al Jazeera. Starlink is outlawed in Iran on national security grounds.
Iran International said Mr Aghamiri made a separate statement at a cyber police conference on Monday 5 October. According to the outlet, he said: "If satellite internet infrastructure is used as a tool of war, naturally this infrastructure can become a legitimate military target." That remark was not in the Al Jazeera report, and no other outlet was found to have reported it.
Starlink is a satellite internet service run by Elon Musk's SpaceX. It can bypass the internet filtering used by Iranian authorities, according to Al Jazeera. Iran is among several countries that have banned or restricted the service on national security grounds.
The legal background dates to 2025. In June of that year, Iran International reported that parliament had passed a law with death penalties for cooperating with Israel, the US or hostile groups.
The outlet said the same law criminalised unauthorised use of tools such as Starlink, with prison terms of six months to two years. It said importing more than 10 devices "with intent to oppose the Islamic Republic" carried five to 10 years.
In October 2025, Iran International published what it described as draft anti-espionage text. It said the draft made use, possession, purchase, sale or import of unlicensed satellite devices "such as Starlink" punishable by imprisonment and confiscation.
The draft said that if such acts were committed with intent to act against the system or for espionage, "the punishment is death". The draft followed the 12-day war between Iran, Israel and the US in June 2025. The final text of the law has not been checked against the draft.
The latest remarks follow a year of disruption to internet access in Iran. Al Jazeera said there were nationwide protests in January 2026, and the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on 28 February.
Iran has had two long internet shutdowns in 2026, according to Al Jazeera. The first lasted three weeks during the January protests. The second lasted 88 days from the start of the war.
Iran has also used its own jamming systems against Starlink, with mixed results, according to Broadband Breakfast. No state news agency coverage of Mr Aghamiri's latest remarks has yet been confirmed.
