WASHINGTON - American firm Planet Labs PBC on Tuesday said it now imposes a two-week delay for access to its satellite images of the Middle East because of the US-Israeli war against Iran.
Both major US satellite firms, Planet and Vantor, now delay or block the release of images from the Middle East because of the conflict that erupted on February 28 with US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
California-based Planet initially imposed a 96-hour delay last week for access to its high-resolution images, which are usually available a few hours after they are taken.
"After consulting with experts inside and outside of government... Planet has decided to take additional, proactive measures to ensure our imagery is not tactically leveraged by adversarial actors to target allied and NATO-partner personnel and civilians," a statement said.
From now on, coverage of "all of Iran and nearby allied bases, in addition to the Gulf States and existing conflict zones" will be blocked for 14 days, it said.
Planet, founded in 2010 by former NASA scientists and whose images are widely used by media and researchers, did not say whether the decision was taken in response to an official US request.