The administration of US President Donald Trump covertly smuggled around 6,000 Starlink satellite internet terminals into Iran amid that erupted across the Islamic Republic earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal reports, substantiating Tehran’s findings of foreign interference behind the deadly unrest.
The operation, which senior US officials said involved State Department funding, came after the Iranian authorities imposed a sweeping internet blackout in January. Trump was aware of the deliveries, officials told the WSJ on Thursday, though it remains unclear whether he personally approved the plan.
Iranian officials accused Washington and Tel Aviv of fueling the unrest, which began in December as peaceful demonstrations over economic hardship but escalated into widespread violence. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated last month that more than 3,000 people were killed, including nearly 700 foreign-backed terrorists, alongside civilians and security personnel.
President Masoud Pezeshkian has accused the US and ‘Israel’ of embedding foreign agents within protest crowds, accusing those agents of using ISIL-like tactics including beheadings of law enforcement officers and burning civilians alive.
Watch how, during the extremely violent and murderous riots in Iran on January 8 and January 9, CIA-, MI6-, and Mossad-trained rioters and armed terrorists attacked ordinary shops and shop owners in order to create chaos.
— Seyed Mohammad Marandi (@s_m_marandi) January 21, 2026
Western legacy media is a tool of Zionism. pic.twitter.com/94jQw3cpzF
At the height of the unrest, Trump openly encouraged the “peaceful” Iranian protesters, posting on Truth Social: “All Iranian patriots, keep protesting. Take over your institutions if possible.”
He also promised that “help is on its way,” and deployed a “beautiful armada” to the region, raising speculation of an imminent military intervention.
The State Department supports a range of so-called “internet freedom” tools, including virtual private network service providers to Iran. To purchase Starlinks, the department reportedly redirected funds from US-supported VPNs, which allowed an estimated 20-30 million Iranians to stay online during the previous 2022 riots and the Israeli-US bombing last year.
Washington seeks to impose a new nuclear deal on Iran, after Trump unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 agreement (JCPOA) during his first term, imposing sanctions on Iran under the ‘maximum pressure’ campaign. The decades-long US economic pressure was the primary driver of the country’s economic deterioration, according to officials in Iran – the world’s second most sanctioned country after Russia.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent boasted that US sanctions triggered rioting inside Iran which left thousands dead
— The Grayzone (@TheGrayzoneNews) January 25, 2026
Now Trump is planning a naval blockade@jedaaal explains how 15 years of American financial terrorism have wreaked havoc on Iranian society pic.twitter.com/HnwmA8sGaH