The US government has asked Planet Labs, a private US satellite imagery company, to suspend indefinitely the publication of images of Iran and some other Middle Eastern countries.
According to Reuters, this is stated in an email that Planet Labs sent to its customers.
The letter from Planet Labs states that the US government has asked all satellite imagery providers to stop publishing images of the Middle East, where the war against Iran has been going on for more than a month, indefinitely. The company will suspend the distribution of images starting March 9. It expects this policy to remain in effect until the war ends.
The company also announced that it will move to a managed distribution of images that do not pose a threat to the US military or its allies. Images will be provided on a case-by-case basis to support critical needs or in the public interest.
A representative of Vantor, another major satellite imagery provider, told Reuters that the US government has not contacted his company. However, the company has previously stated that it has for many years reserved the right to tighten access control measures for imagery during military conflicts. It is currently applying these measures to the war against Iran.
BlackSky Technology, which also supplies satellite imagery, did not respond to Reuters' request for comment.
Reuters writes that it has sent a request to the US Department of Defense to find out what the government's request to Planet Labs is about. The Pentagon declined to comment.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, on March 6, the American edition of The Washington Post wrote that the aggressor country russia provides Iran with information about the location of the US military in the Middle East.
On March 9, US Ambassador to the UN Mike Volz called the assistance that Iran began receiving from russia after the outbreak of the war ineffective.
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