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The hack isn’t the first to disrupt Iranian airwaves. In 1986, The Washington Post reported that the CIA supplied the prince’s allies “a miniaturised television transmitter for an 11-minute clandestine broadcast” to Iran by Pahlavi that pirated the signal of two stations in the Islamic Republic.
In 2022, multiple channels aired footage showing leaders from the exiled opposition group Mujahideen-e-Khalq and a graphic calling for the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
As tensions remain high between Tehran and Washington, ship-tracking data analysed by the AP this week showed the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and other American military vessels in the Strait of Malacca after passing Singapore – a journey that could take them to the Middle East.
The Lincoln had been in the South China Sea with its strike group as a deterrent to China over tensions with Taiwan. Tracking data showed that the USS Frank E. Petersen Jr., the USS Michael Murphy and the USS Spruance – all Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers – were travelling with the Lincoln.
Multiple US media reports quoting anonymous officials have said that the Lincoln, which has its home port in San Diego, was on its way to the Middle East. It likely would still need several days of travel before its aircraft would be in range of the region.
The Mideast has been without an aircraft carrier group or an amphibious ready group, likely complicating any discussion of a military operation targeting Iran, given Gulf Arab states’ broad opposition to such an attack.
The USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea in 2019.Credit: AP
Meanwhile, the World Economic Forum withdrew its invitation for Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to speak at Davos.
“Although he was invited last fall, the tragic loss of lives of civilians in Iran over the past few weeks means that it is not right for the Iranian government to be represented at Davos this year,” the forum said.
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Iran’s ambassador to Switzerland, Mahmoud Barimani, called the decision an “unreasonable act which was no doubt under the pressure and influence of anti-Iranian currents and radical American-Zionists”.
The Munich Security Conference separately withdrew invitations for Iranian government officials over the crackdown.
The death toll from the crackdown on the protests exceeds that of any other round of unrest in Iran in decades, and recalls the chaos surrounding the 1979 revolution.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency put the death toll on Tuesday to at least 4029, warning it likely would go higher. It said of the dead, 3786 were demonstrators, 180 were security forces, 28 were children and 35 were people not demonstrating.
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The agency has been accurate throughout the years of demonstrations and unrest in Iran, relying on a network of activists inside the country that confirms all reported fatalities. AP was unable to independently confirm the toll.
Iranian officials have not given a clear death toll, although on Saturday, Khamenei said the protests had left “several thousand” people dead and blamed the US for the deaths. It was the first indication from an Iranian leader of the extent of the casualties from the wave of protests that began on December 28 over Iran’s ailing economy.
The agency also reported that more than 25,700 people had been arrested. Comments from officials have led to fears of some of those detained being put to death in Iran, one of the world’s top executioners.
“While the killers and seditious terrorists will be punished, Islamic mercy and leniency will be applied to those who were deceived and did not have (effective) roles in the terrorist event,” a statement on Monday from Iran’s president, its judiciary chief and parliament speaker said.
AP
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