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By Isabel Debré | Associated press
DUBA, United Arab Emirates U.S. authorities on Tuesday shut down a series of news sites linked to the Iranian state under unclear circumstances, the United States and Iran said, a move that appeared to be a severe crackdown. scale against the Iranian media amid heightened tensions between the two. countries.
The United States has seized about three dozen websites, the majority of which are linked to Iranian disinformation efforts, said a US official who requested anonymity because the matter had not yet been officially announced by the government American.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported the seizure of the websites by the US government, without providing further information.
The dismantling comes as world powers scramble to resuscitate Tehran’s tattered 2015 nuclear deal and just days after the electoral victory of Iranian justice chief Ebrahim Raisi. On Monday, Raisi, known for his hostility to the West, took a tough stance at his first press conference. He ruled out possibilities of meeting President Joe Biden or negotiating over Tehran’s ballistic missile program and support for regional militias, concerns the Biden administration wants to address in future talks.
Iran is lending its support to militant groups in the region, such as militant Lebanese Hezbollah and Houthi rebels in Yemen, as it seeks to exert its influence in the distance and counter its enemies.
On Tuesday, visiting the addresses of a handful of sites, including Press TV, Iran’s English-language state television channel, the Yemeni Houthi-run satellite news channel Al-Masirah, and the Arabic-language channel of Iranian state television, Al-Alam, produced a federal advisory. . He said the websites were seized “in connection with law enforcement action” by the US Bureau of Industry and Security, the Office of Export Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. .
The US government also took over the domain name of the Palestine Today news site, which reflects the views of Gaza-based Islamic militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, redirecting the site to the same takedown notice.
Yemen’s Houthi rebel group announced that its Al-Masirah satellite news channel had disconnected without notice. He said the channel would continue with its mission of “dealing with American and Israeli acts of piracy against our nation, by all means”.
Press TV, launched in June 2007, is the English-language service of the Islamic Republic of Iran broadcasting. There are no private television or radio stations in Iran. Satellite dishes, although widespread, are also illegal. This leaves the IRIB with the monopoly of national airwaves.
Marzieh Hashemi, a prominent Press TV presenter who in 2019 was arrested as a key witness in an unspecified criminal case and appeared before a grand jury in Washington, told The Associated Press that the channel had to hard to “understand the reasons” for the seizure.
During its broadcast in Iran, Press TV mainly focuses on international affairs through the prism of how the leaders of the Islamic Republic view the world. Fierce criticism of British and American foreign policy is common. Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the IRIB has been in the hands of hard-line supporters who support the Iranian government.
Associated Press editors Eric Tucker in Washington and Maggie Hyde in Cairo contributed to this report.
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