The secretary of Iran's Supreme National Cyberspace Council has called Starlink a "tool of war", and authorities pledged to continue a crackdown on the satellite service, Al Jazeera reported.
Mohammad Amin Aghamiri, who is secretary of the council, described the satellite internet service as a tool for enemies of Iran, according to Al Jazeera, in a report dated 14 October.
Al Jazeera said Iranian authorities had pledged to continue the crackdown on Starlink and to impose further restrictions on the global internet while the war involving the US, Israel and Iran continues. The report did not set out what new measures might be introduced.
Mr Aghamiri said Starlink was used by the enemy for command and control, espionage and information gathering. No independent evidence for that claim was found, and it comes only from Mr Aghamiri.
He also said: "We have several systems for cutting off Starlink satellite terminals." He did not say which measures or devices were used to block the service, according to Al Jazeera.
Al Jazeera reported that one such system was deployed during the January protests. It added that authorities were prepared to share the technology with aligned countries.
Opposition-run outlet Iran International reported that Mr Aghamiri spoke on Monday 5 October at an online-business conference organised by Iran's cyber police.
According to Iran International, he said satellite internet infrastructure used as a tool of war could become a legitimate military target. His remarks were conditional on the infrastructure being used in that way.
IranWire and Cybernews also carried the remarks about a military target. Cybernews attributed some of them to an interview Mr Aghamiri gave to the Iranian news agency Fars on Monday.
Iran International said Mr Aghamiri called the January protests a "coup" and said authorities had disabled Starlink terminals during the unrest. This is the account of Iranian officials, as reported by Iran International and Cybernews.
Separately, Rest of World reported that GPS jammers deployed since 8 January had cut satellite internet performance by as much as 80% in parts of the country. The brief did not establish who operated the jammers.
Iran International also reported that Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned Norway's ambassador on Sunday 4 October to protest against Starlink operations in Iran. That report was not confirmed by a second outlet.
No response from Starlink, SpaceX or the US government to Mr Aghamiri's remarks had been reported.
Starlink is the satellite internet service of Elon Musk's SpaceX. It can bypass Iran's internet filtering, and Iran is one of several countries that have banned or restricted it, according to Al Jazeera.
Starlink is outlawed in Iran on national security grounds. Using satellite internet services and distributing Starlink terminals are punishable by fines and imprisonment, Al Jazeera reported.
The Supreme National Cyberspace Council is Iran's top policy body for online governance. Al Jazeera's report includes a line, attributed to an official, that satellite internet could erode online governance in Iran.
Al Jazeera said Iran's 90 million people have lived through two long state-imposed shutdowns of the global internet in 2026. The first lasted three weeks during the January protests.
A Georgia Tech report from 16 January said that blackout extended to phones and Starlink.
The second shutdown began when the war started and lasted 88 days. Al Jazeera said the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on 28 February 2026. Iran International described the shutdown as the longest digital blackout in the world.
Iran International also said authorities had cut or restricted connectivity during the protests of November 2019, the Woman, Life, Freedom protests and the 12-day war of June 2025.
During the June 2025 war, Iran's Cyber Security Command banned officials and their security teams from using devices connected to public networks, according to Fars, as relayed by Iran International.
No date has been given for any new restrictions.
