The BBC Persian website is still blocked in Iran and will continue to be so, said Abdolsamad Khoramabadi, secretary of Iran's Committee for Determining Criminal Web Content.

“We never removed the filter. The website should not be accessible in Iran,” he told the local Tasnim News.

When asked why some parts of Iran can still access the BBC Persian website, Khoramabadi said:

“We and Iran’s internet providers will investigate to find out how this happened. We will not remove the filter and we never planned to do so. If some people have access to the website it’s because of a technical problem.”

Khoramabadi was also asked if Iran’s Ministry of Information and Communications Technology had removed the filter on BBC Persian.

“The Ministry doesn’t have the right to do that without consulting us and getting our permission,” Khoramabadi said.