The latest pressure point in the standoff around the Gulf lies on the seabed. Tehran is prepared to go after the fibre-optic lines that run under Gulf waters if Washington and Israel strike the country again, according to a pair of senior Iranian security figures who spoke to Reuters anonymously.
They offered little in the way of specifics, declining to say where or by what means such strikes might happen. One of them did suggest that Iran would also try to block repair crews afterwards, so that outages to the internet and other links would drag on. In that case, he said, Iran would no longer respect any limits.
The remarks build on a televised threat earlier in the week. Speaking to the Arabic-language channel Al-Alam on Wednesday, Revolutionary Guards political deputy Yadollah Javani named seven large data lines under the Hormuz waterway as possible targets in response to any strike on Iranian facilities, pointing to the large investments Washington and its partners have there.
How much damage that would do is debated. The UN’s telecoms agency, the ITU, estimates that seabed fibre handles roughly 99% of cross-border data. But TeleGeography analyst Alan Mauldin points out that only a sliver of worldwide capacity, under one percent, passes through this particular chokepoint. The greater risk is to the Gulf states themselves, although some of their traffic could be rerouted over land or along other sea routes.
The threat lands at a tense moment, with tanker strikes and mines disrupting shipping and pushing oil prices higher. Officials in Washington, Tehran and the Gulf capitals offered no immediate reaction.
