Former Israeli prime minister says he smuggled Starlink receptors into Iran
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Wed, 06/24/2026 - 09:39
Naftali Bennett accuses Netanyahu of stopping his programme to provide internet in Iran to help anti-government protesters
Naftali Bennett speaks in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv on 12 May (Jack Guez/AFP)
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Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said he had helped to smuggle tens of thousands of Starlink receptors into Iran.
Speaking at the JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Bennett said the plan had been to aid anti-government protesters during times when the Islamic Republic cut off internet access, as it often does during demonstrations.
"What happens every time there's a protest? They turn off the internet, and then there's no communications," he said.
"So what I had started was a process of acquiring and smuggling into Iran tens of thousands of Starlink receptors that would allow continuity of the internet and social networks when they turn it off, and would allow the protests to coordinate and ultimately topple."
However, he said that current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's "incompetent" government stopped the programme.
"And when the protest happened, that infrastructure was not there," he said, referring to the protests in Iran that began in late December.
The anti-government protests that escalated in January saw thousands killed.
The demonstrations started in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar in response to inflation before growing and becoming a vehicle for anger at the Islamic Republic as a whole.
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Although Iranian police and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces were blamed for most of the deaths, there have also been claims of Israeli infiltrations into the demonstrations and the killing of Iranian security forces and civilians by anti-government activists.
Bennett's comments come as the US and Iran continue negotiating an end to the war that began in February, when Israeli and American forces attacked the country, killing its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The US suspended sanctions against Iran on Monday during a day of talks that US Vice President JD Vance characterised as "good progress".
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the Treasury would be temporarily lifting sanctions until 21 August under a 60-day general licence that authorises Iranian oil production and sales.
Any transactions during this period must be made in US dollars.
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