Former head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard intelligence and advisor to its commander says the “enemy” controls the Internet, so it has to be restricted.

Hossein Ta’eb stated that today "we no longer have aerial bombardments and missiles" and instead a "hybrid war" is taking place.

The clerical regime has blocked thousands of website for the past two decades, but expanded its Internet restrictions at the beginning of antigovernment protests in September.

"The Internet is in control of the enemy, so we have to restrict it to deny the enemy success in its hybrid war," added Taeb.

Islamic Republic officials use the term “enemy” to refer to the United States and its allies.

During a speech at Tehran Polytechnic University (Amirkabir) on Monday, he also attributed support by celebrities for public protests to "hybrid war", claiming that in a hybrid war the fans of a celebrity must get excited to create violence.

Ta’eb also referred to Prince Reza Pahlavi's appreciation for the prominent Sunni cleric Mowlavi Abdolhamid's criticism of the government, saying "we do not have ethnic and religious differences, and Shia and Sunni live together, but some people want to take advantage of this."

He once again accused the US of seeking to create "social rifts" in Iran, so that "both sides in the society will clash first, and then they clash with the government".

He did not say who exactly he meant by the two sides and did not provide any evidence for his claims.