Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon walked over to the Iranian delegation after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the UN General Assembly on September 24 and tried to hand an Iranian diplomat a Starlink satellite internet terminal.
“I thought it was appropriate to give you the Starlink,” Danon said in footage he later released. “If you heard the prime minister, it would be very useful for you to allow the Iranian people to get their freedom after what you did to them. Do you want to take it and deliver it back to Tehran?” The diplomat avoided his gaze and did not take the device.
The terminal was the same one Netanyahu displayed from the podium. “The Iranian regime is especially afraid when their people have this,” Netanyahu said, describing Starlink as a device that allows people “to access truth, to exercise choice and to exercise freedom of thought and freedom of speech.” He offered to leave it for Iranian diplomats who defect.
Starlink is the satellite internet service operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Dozens of delegates walked out of the General Assembly hall as Netanyahu began his speech.