TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran’s main mobile phone network was cut in its capital Tehran on Saturday evening. Popular websites like Facebook and YouTube were appeared to be blocked by internet providers, correspondents said.

The interruptions happened after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won a landslide re-election, and provoked opposition supporters to create riot on the streets, claiming that the result of the elections has been tainted.

The mobile phone network provider stopped working on 17:30 GMT, just before the new president appeared on TV to declare his victory, according to witnesses.

Iran has two national networks run by state-owned MCI (Telecommunication Company of Iran) and the private firm Irancell.

On the other hand, many Iran-based internet users logging on to different service providers said they could not connect to Facebook and YouTube — the two websites used effectively by young supporters of Ahmadinejad’s moderate rival Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Authorities also banned the popular social networking website Facebook on May 23 to prevent supporters of Mousavi from using it for his presidential campaign, reportedly.

Access to the aforementioned sites was restored after a few days.

Estimates show that there are 20 million internet users in Iran. The country has strict monitoring of cyber material that goes in and out of the country.

Several pro-Mousavi websites have also been blocked in the past few days.

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