Overview
- Several state TV channels briefly aired recordings that included messages from exiled figure Reza Pahlavi urging security forces to side with the public, with state media acknowledging short signal disruptions in some regions.
- Clips shared by viewers suggest the interruption lasted around ten minutes and featured calls for the military to protect civilians, though the full scope and origin of the hack remain unverified.
- Pahlavi announced he intends to return to Iran and pressed for international backing, but his influence is disputed and some casualty claims he cited have not been independently verified.
- Fatality estimates diverge sharply under the information blackout: a government representative put the death toll at at least 5,000 after Khamenei cited several thousand, HRANA has verified about 3,919, and a Sunday Times report from medical networks alleges at least 16,500 killed and 330,000 injured.
- Connectivity remains largely severed nationwide with only intermittent easing, and doctors and activists report using smuggled Starlink terminals despite risks, as President Massud Peseschkian warns the United States that any attack on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would be equivalent to war.