White House, Elon Musk Reportedly Discuss Possibility of Getting Starlink Internet to Iran

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The Biden administration and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk have been engaged in talks on the possibility of providing the Starlink satellite internet service to Iran amid anti-government protests in the country, CNN reported on Friday.

White House officials have talked with Musk about providing Iran the internet service, which has also been provided to Ukraine, as a way of supporting the protest movement, the report said.

Public demonstrations began across Iran following the death of 22-year old Mahsa Amini in September, allegedly at the hands of the country’s so-called Morality Police for improperly wearing of a hijab. The Iranian authorities contend Amini died of a heart attack.

However, getting terminals needed to activate Starlink into Iran will be a bigger and more dangerous challenge than it was in Ukraine, the report said. Musk noted last week that there are “very few” Starlink terminals operating in Iran at present.

Smuggling the terminals into Iran and keeping their presence unnoticed by the Iranian authorities could prove challenging as the systems’ signals could be easily detected, the report said.

The discussions come following a back-and-forth between Musk and the Defense Department over payment for the Starlink systems being used in Ukraine, which Musk claimed was costing the company millions of dollars. Musk later withdrew a request to have the cost subsidized by the US government.

The incident caused concerns about Musk’s reliability as a partner of the US government, with one senior defense official calling the billionaire entrepreneur a “loose cannon,” the report said.