The White House has engaged in talks with Elon Musk about the possibility of setting up SpaceX's satellite internet service Starlink inside Iran, multiple officials familiar with the discussions
The conversations, which have not been previously reported, come as the Biden administration searches for ways to support the Iranian protest movement that exploded just over a month ago after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died under suspicious circumstances after being detained by the country's morality police.
The White House sees Starlink's compact, easy-to-use technology as a potential solution to the Iranian regime's aggressive efforts to restrict activists' internet access and communications.
possibly can to support the aspirations of the Iranian people," a senior administration official told CNN. "That is our policy, period. At the same time, it is truly an Iranian movement led by young girls and spreading to other aspects of society. And we do not want to in any way eclipse their movement."
If a plan is enacted, it would be the second major theater this year — along with Ukraine — where the US government has turned to Starlink to help provide crucial telecommunication services, even as questions swirl around Musk's reliability in his dealings with the US government.
"He's a loose cannon we can never predict," said a senior US defense official familiar with the government's discussions with Musk and SpaceX about Ukraine.
Concerns over Musk's unpredictable tendencies intensified after CNN first reported last week that Musk's company, SpaceX, had been quietly asking the Pentagon to pay tens of millions of dollars per month to fund Starlink in Ukraine and take the burden off SpaceX. In response to that reporting, Musk then abruptly announced on Twitter that he had withdrawn the funding request.
The Pentagon has said this week that talks with SpaceX about Ukraine are ongoing, after documents obtained by CNN showed SpaceX warning the Pentagon last month it could no longer fund or service Starlink in Ukraine "for an indefinite period of time."
SpaceX claims that providing Starlink services in Ukraine have cost it $80 million so far and that by the end of the year costs will exceed $100 million. SpaceX did not respond to CNN's request for comment.
A solution or a risk for Iranian activists?
The needs of Iranian protesters and Ukrainian soldiers, and how they would use Starlink, are wildly different. And experts warn that while Starlink in Ukraine has been critical to battlefield successes, getting Starlink into Iran would be a much bigger and potentially more dangerous challenge.