Iran may lift its internet blackout in the next few days, a senior lawmaker said on Monday, after authorities cut off communications as protests broke out late last year and evolved into the worst domestic unrest since the 1979 revolution.
Ebrahim Azizi, head of the parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said the highest security agencies would decide to restore the internet in the coming days, with services resuming "as soon as security conditions allow," Al Arabiya reported from Reuters (20/1).
Another lawmaker, hardliner Hamid Rasaei, said authorities should have listened to earlier complaints from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei about a "loose cyber space".
Communications in Iran, including the internet and international phone lines, were largely halted in the days leading up to the worst unrest. The blackout has partially eased, allowing reports of widespread attacks on demonstrators to emerge.
Streets in Iran have been largely calm for a week since anti-government protests that began in late December gradually subsided.
An Iranian official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the number of confirmed deaths was more than 5,000, including 500 members of the security forces, with some of the worst unrest taking place in Kurdish ethnic areas in the northwest.
Meanwhile, Western-based Iranian human rights groups have also said thousands of people have died.
Opponents accuse authorities of firing on peaceful demonstrators to quell dissent. Iran's clerical rulers say armed mobs instigated by foreign enemies attacked hospitals and mosques.
The death toll is far greater than previous waves of anti-government unrest quashed by authorities in 2022 and 2009. The violence prompted repeated threats from Trump to intervene militarily, though he has since backed down as the large-scale killings have stopped.
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