“Some online services” restored in Iran after protest shutdown: NetBlocks

• Following a 10-day near-total communications blackout, Iranian authorities have begun a "gradual restoration" of internet services, with NetBlocks confirming a slight rise in connectivity to roughly 2% of normal levels as some services like Google and WhatsApp become partially accessible.
• President Masoud Pezeshkian warned that any US attempt to target Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei would trigger a "full-scale war”.

Limited internet access has returned in Iran, a monitor said Sunday, 10 days after authorities imposed a communications blackout that rights groups have said was aimed at masking a protest crackdown that killed thousands - according to NGOs.

Iran's president warned that an attack on the country's supreme leader would be a declaration of war -- an apparent response to US counterpart Donald Trump saying it was time to look for new leadership in Iran.

Demonstrations sparked in late December by anger over economic hardship exploded into protests widely seen as the biggest challenge to the Iranian leadership in years.

The rallies subsided after the crackdown that rights groups have called a "massacre" carried out by security forces under the cover of a communications blackout that started on January 8 as the protests grew in size and intensity.

Iranian officials have said the demonstrations were peaceful before turning into "riots" and blamed foreign influence from Iran's arch-foes the United States and ‘Israel’.

Trump, who backed and joined ‘Israel's’ 12-day war against Iran in June, had repeatedly threatened new military action against Tehran if protesters were killed.

While Washington appeared to have stepped back, Trump hit out at supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- in power for 37 years -- in an interview with Politico on Saturday, saying it was "time to look for new leadership in Iran".

"The man is a sick man who should run his country properly and stop killing people," Trump said. "His country is the worst place to live anywhere in the world because of poor leadership."

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned on Sunday in an X post: "An attack on the great leader of our country is tantamount to a full-scale war with the Iranian nation."

As leaders in Washington and Tehran have exchanged barbs, Iranian officials have said calm has been restored in the streets.

Schools reopened on Sunday -- Iran's weekend falling on Thursday and Friday -- after a week of closure and authorities said "internet access would also be gradually restored", Tasnim news agency reported on Saturday.
Monitor Netblocks said some online services, including Google, had partially returned in Iran, though overall connectivity remained disrupted.

Some users reported access to WhatsApp, while outgoing international calls had resumed since Tuesday, and text messaging was restored Saturday.

Solidarity demonstrations have continued in multiple cities in recent days, including in Berlin, London and Paris.

On Saturday, Khamenei said "a few thousand" people had been killed by what he called "agents" of the United States and ‘Israel’, and Iranian local media has reported multiple deaths among security forces.

Khamenei said authorities "must break the back of the seditionists", as local media have reported thousands of arrests.

On Sunday, Iran's judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir reiterated that swift trials would be held, warning that some acts warranted the capital offence of "moharebeh", or "waging war against God".

"All those who played a decisive role in these calls for violence, which led to bloodshed and significant damage to public finances, will not be spared," he said.

Alarm has grown over the threat of capital punishment against arrested protesters, even as Trump said Iran had called off hundreds of executions.