By Alexander Cornwell and Steven Scheer
JERUSALEM, June 23 (Reuters) - A former Israeli prime minister acknowledged on Tuesday that Israel had smuggled Starlink internet receivers into Iran to help anti-government protesters, though he said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government failed to follow through on the plans.
Naftali Bennett, who served as prime minister from 2021 to 2022, told an audience at the JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem that he had initiated a "process of acquiring and smuggling into Iran tens of thousands of Starlink receptors that would allow continuity of the internet and social networks".
Starlink, owned by Elon Musk's SpaceX, provides satellite internet connections. Iran has previously accused Israel and the United States of smuggling in the devices to undermine its security. Starlink is not licensed to operate in Iran but Musk has previously said the service is active there.
Bennett said the devices were intended to enable protesters to coordinate and ultimately topple the Iranian government.
"Unfortunately, the current incompetent Israeli government stopped doing that," he said. "And when the protest happened, that infrastructure was not there."
Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to questions on Bennett’s remarks and SpaceX was not available for comment outside U.S. business hours.
Iranian authorities have shut down the public’s access to the internet during periods of unrest, including during deadly nationwide protests in January and throughout the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran that began at the end of February.
Reuters has previously reported that some Iranians turned to Starlink during internet blackouts.
Bennett, leader of a right-wing party and one of several opposition politicians vying to replace Netanyahu in an election due by October, said Israel and other Middle East states need to "join forces to repel and ultimately topple" Iran's government.
"It's a rotten, old, disconnected, incompetent regime, and it will fall like the Soviet Union fell," he said, to applause.
(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell and Steven Scheer; Editing by Peter Graff)
