War in the Middle East: Iran partially restores internet access after three months outage due to conflict

A signal to open. Internet access in Iran was partially restored on Tuesday, May 26, after an almost total cut of almost three months due to the war, triggered on February 28 by the Israeli-American attack.

“Real-time data shows partial restoration of connectivity in Iran after 2,093 hours of near-total isolation from international networks. a record on a country scale, first announced the cybersecurity monitoring NGO NetBlocks. “The first step towards free and regulated access to cyberspace has been taken”then indicated Iranian Vice-President Mohammad-Reza Aref in a message published on X, adding that with this measure, the demands of the Iranians “will be satisfied”.

On Monday, in the midst of negotiations between Tehran and Washington to put a lasting end to the war, President Massoud Pezeshkian, perceived as more moderate, ordered the restoration of internet access. But this signal of detente was blurred on Tuesday when the Iranian justice system announced the suspension following “complaint filings” of the body which had taken this measure, the Special Headquarters for the organization and governance of national cyberspace, created on May 12 by Massoud Pezeshkian. The head of state is in fact incompetent in the matter, with the final decision falling to the Supreme National Security Council, led by the hard-line supporter.

Interrupted during the major demonstrations which peaked at the beginning of January, access to the international internet in Iran was then partly restored before being suspended again at the end of February. “Iran still has a long way to go to return to pre-January 8 traffic levels”wrote on X Doug Madory, manager at Kentik, an American network monitoring company, calling for this partial recovery to be put into perspective. Since the start of the war, the population had only access to the local intranet, which allows them to connect to national sites, banking services or applications approved by the state.

The outage heavily affected economic sectors dependent on an internet connection, such as high technologies and online commerce. The situation will return to normal “once the shadow of war has disappeared”assured the government spokesperson in mid-May, placing responsibility on the threats of “enemies” Americans and Israelis on the security of the country.