The White House has been talking to Elon Musk on the possibility of deploying Starlink, an internet network via SpaceX satellite, inside Iran, several authorities familiar with the matter told the CNN.
The discussions, which were not previously disclosed, arise as the Biden administration looks for ways to support the Iranian protest movement that erupted just over month after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in suspicious circumstances after being detained by the police of country morality.
The White House sees Starlink’s compact, easy-to-use technology as a possible solution against the aggressive efforts of Iranian regime to restrict communication and internet access of activists.
“We are making every effort to do everything possible to support the aspirations of the Iranian people,” said a senior government official to CNN.
“This is our policy. at the same time, this is an Iranian movement led by young girls, that has spread to other spheres of society. And not In no way do we want to eclipse that movement.”
If the plan goes ahead, it will be the second arena this year. — together with Ukraine — where the US government sought to Starlink to help provide crucial telecommunications, even with questions about the Musk’s trustworthiness in his relationship with the US government.
“He’s unpredictable,” a US defense official said. familiar with the conversations between the government and Musk and the SpaceX over Ukraine.
Concerns about Musk’s unpredictability intensified after first-hand report from CNN at last week that Musk’s company, SpaceX, was asking the Pentagon to pay millions of dollars a month to finance Starlink in Ukraine, and thus ease the burden on the SpaceX.
In response to this report, Musk announced in a way sudden on twitter who had withdrawn the funding request.
This week, the Pentagon announced that negotiations with the SpaceX over Ukraine are underway after documents obtained by CNN showed SpaceX’s warnings to the Pentagon last month that the company could no longer finance or offer Starlink services in Ukraine “for a indefinite period of time”.
SpaceX claims that Starlink’s provision of services in Ukraine has cost US$ 80 million so far (about R$ 412 million), and that by the end of the year expenses will exceed US$ 100 million (approximately R$ 516 million). SpaceX did not respond to any request for comment from CNN.
Solution or risk for Iranian activism?
The needs of Iranian protesters and soldiers Ukrainians, and how they would use Starlink, are very different.
Experts warn that although Starlink in Ukraine has been critical to battlefield successes, putting the service in Iran would be a much greater challenge and, possibly, much more more dangerous.
The situation of Starlink and Ukraine does not seem to have prevented the White House to look for the company, which uses satellites to provide internet services to compact ground terminals. THE SpaceX has about 3,000 of these satellites in orbit today, and about 20,000 land terminals in Ukraine.
President Joe Biden wanted to show more confidence and support for the Iranian protesters than their former boss, President Barack Obama, who chose to stay out of the Iranian protests that broke out in 2009. Biden said in communiqué on October 3 that his government “has the Iranian women and all citizens of Iran who inspire the world with your bravery”, and who is trying to facilitate access of Iranians to the internet.
“We want to find ways to ensure that the Iranian people can access the internet on their phones and on all other places,” commented the senior government official.
“Thus, theStarlink is an option, but not the only option.”
It is unclear whether the government has offered to pay for the installation of Starlink terminals in Iran. In your letter to Pentagon in September, SpaceX said it could no longer donate Starlink terminals to Ukraine, or pay for the service continuous.
The company also requested that the Pentagon take over the funding for the Ukrainian government and for the military use of the Starlink, which would cost more than $120 million by the end of the year and could reach US$ 400 million in the next 12 months, according to SpaceX’s claim.
Some US officials hope that the terminals Starlink on the ground will one day become as prevalent in Iran as the satellite dishes. This technology is also technically prohibited by the regime, and yet it is abundant throughout the country, looked at the sources. Currently, there are “very few” terminals Starlink already operating in Iran, commented Musk in a tweet at last week.
But there are many glaring problems with this plan. O The main one is that Starlink satellites require terminals physical devices on the ground to connect, and their signals can be easily detected.
Smuggling units across the border for Iran is just the first challenge, before they can be, hypothetically, used by protesters under the watchful eye of Iran’s security services.
“My concern is the lack of knowledge about security and even training people to hide these signals,” explained Amir Rashidi, director of internet security and digital rights of the Miaan Group, which was forced to flee Iran after the 2009 protests. “It will be very risky for people in Iran to use it on a massive scale.”
Rashidi further noted that more language instruction manuals Persian, also known as Farsi, are needed, to help protesters to cover their tracks and use the equipment with safety. He further argued that more is needed investments in evasion tools and in the work of the Union UN Telecommunications International.
According to Rashidi, efforts supported by States States have significant risks.
“As soon as we are arrested, the first charge is that you are a spy, works for the CIA, for the intelligence service British”, he commented. “If the US government is involved in the distribution, that would be another crime in the eyes of the government Iranian, and people could be accused of that, which are really harsh accusations.”
“Why didn’t we think of this sooner?”
While support for the protesters’ media is an area where the government feels it can take action concrete, one of the criticisms is that he is only taking it seriously now.
“Why didn’t we think of this sooner?” said one of the people. involved in the discussions CNN. “We are printing so many efforts in the JCPOA [mais conhecido como acordo nuclear iraniano]. Getting rid of this regime is a security interest national. How to do this? Empowering these Democrats in the Iran, and the best way to do that is to find ways to support technologies like this in the country; but we didn’t, we we fail.”
The senior government official told CNN that at this time, the JCPOA “is not on the agenda”. The Council Coordinator National Security for Strategic Communications, John Kirby, confirmed the information on Thursday (20), saying told reporters that “we are very far from the Iranians in ters of a resumption of the agreement”.
“Our focus is to ensure that we hold the regime accountable for way it is treating protesters in the country,” he continued.
The White House, government technologists, Musk and his team are still working to deal with the biggest challenges of Starlink and other communication technologies, clarified the authorities.
“In terms of a more active involvement of the US government, American, without going into specific technologies, we are always evaluating whether a technology would put those who use it at risk of being identified or harmed by their government somehow,” explained the senior government official. “All elements of the Biden administration fully agree with that.”
The employee also highlighted the benefits of a change in policy that the Biden administration made last month in an effort to expand internet service to Iranians.
The license issued by the Treasury Department would give US technology greater freedom to operate in Iran, a country highly sanctioned.
“The beauty of the D-2 General License is that it allows companies to private companies decide which products and services to offer in Iran”, added the government official. unpredictability of Musk on Ukraine raises concern Musk said that if the terminals manage to enter Iran, the SpaceX has already activated its signal. However, the way he has acted in the discussions on Ukraine only increased the concerns about the considerable influence that the most world’s rich can have on some of the biggest global conflicts.
Last weekend, Musk tweeted : “What the hell… even if Starlink is still losing money and other companies are receiving billions from taxpayers, we will continue funding the Ukrainian government for free,” wrote the billionaire on Saturday. On Monday, he expressly stated: “The SpaceX has already withdrawn its funding request.”
Earlier this week, Pentagon press secretary, Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder told reporters that the department “continues to discuss various matters with the SpaceX to include Starlink,” adding that the Pentagon I hadn’t paid anything for the network yet.
At the same time, there were a large number of reports of shutdowns of Starlink along the front lines as Ukraine advanced into areas occupied by Russia. a source familiar with the discussions with SpaceX told CNN what Ukraine had to deliberately ask for the service to be on when an area is resumed.
On Thursday (20), Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, expressed confidence that Starlink’s funding would go on, telling Politico magazine: “I know we won’t have problems”. If the funding does not come from SpaceX, he added, he hopes the Pentagon, Europe and private donors will position.
Musk highlighted the public praise given by Ukrainian officials to the SpaceX and Starlink — a Ukrainian officer, Mykhailo Fedorov, called Musk “one of the world’s leading private donors.” who support Ukraine” — as evidence that he is not trying to undermine the struggle of the Ukrainians.
When someone tweeted on Tuesday that Musk is “trying to bring both sides of the conflict to the same level, so that avoid a one-sided situation”, calling the attitude “peace to lowest cost,” Musk replied, “exactly.”
Even so, there are still concerns about dependence on
Ukraine by Starlink.
“Ukraine needs Musk’s technology, but doesn’t knowand if he will continue to support the country,” said a person familiar with the talks between Ukraine and SpaceX. John Scott-Railton, researcher and connectivity expert in conflicts, called Starlink’s success in Ukraine a “great marketing”, but the issue of supporting the media of Iranian protesters “is a big challenge, and it is much more difficult visualize how it would be approached by Starlink devices”.
“Efforts to help must be based on an understanding of how Iranians communicate, the risks they face, and in the censorship evasion technologies that they have experience in to use. We must engage, but be careful with solutions magic”.
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
