Access to the sites of several pro-Iranian media blocked by the American justice system

Published on : 06/23/2021 – 03:33

Access to the websites of several Iranian state media or media close to the Tehran regime was blocked on Tuesday, June 22. A message thus appeared on the sites of the news channels in Arabic Al-Alam and in English Press-TV, which belong to the network of state television Irib, assuring that they were “seized by the American government” .

The message is accompanied by the seals of the Federal Police and the United States Department of Commerce. This action takes place within the framework of the exercise of presidential authority in the face of an extraordinary threat, according to one of the articles of law cited in the message.

According to Iranian television, the Palestine channels Al-Youm, Naba and Al-Kawthar were also blocked.

“ A violation of press freedom denounced

Press-TV referred to “apparent coordinated action” on its Twitter account, while Iranian state television denounced the blocking “of pro-resistance media exposing the crimes of US allies in the region.”

“While the Democratic United States government claims to support free speech, in practice it is shutting down the media by supporting” Israel and Saudi Arabia, two historic allies of Washington in the Middle East, Irib added on its website.

The Fars agency, close to the Iranian ultraconservatives, also denounced “a flagrant violation of press freedom”.

Iran is under a series of US economic sanctions for its nuclear enrichment program suspected by Washington of having military aims. The Islamic Republic is also accused of human rights violations and of supporting terrorism.

Iraq, Bahrain and Yemeni rebel sites blocked

The site of the Houthi rebel chain in Yemen, al-Masirah, was also blocked with the same message. On the site of the political wing of the Houthis, al-Masirah condemned “an act of piracy and the confiscation of copyrights” by the United States which intervenes “without justification and without warning”. The channel, however, created a new website which was operational on Tuesday evening.

Several Iraqi websites, including that of the Hezbollah brigades, Iraq’s most radical pro-Iran faction, were no longer accessible on Tuesday and only a message from the “US Department of Commerce” appeared.

Already in October 2020, this site as well as that of al-Etejah, the television of the Hezbollah brigades, had suffered the same fate. As is the site of al-Noujaba, Iraq’s other major pro-Iran faction. These two factions, made up of Iraqi fighters but trained, financed and armed by Iran, operate both in Iraq but also in Syria alongside the regime of Bashar al-Assad and the Lebanese Hezbollah.

The site of the Bahraini opposition television station, LuaLua TV, was also blocked. The chain, which has offices in London and Beirut, criticized an “illegal seizure” of their website. The Bahraini authorities accuse the groups controlling the channel of being close to the Iranian regime. Bahrain is home to the US Fifth Fleet and has normalized its relations with Israel.

With AFP