Iran threatens to target 7 cables in Hormuz if attacks resume
Key Facts
Two Iranian security officials told Reuters, in a report published on October 23, 2026, that Tehran had drawn up plans to target undersea telecommunications cables in the Gulf if the United States and Israel attacked Iran again. The report quoted Yadollah Javani, deputy head of political affairs at the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as saying Iran could target 7 major internet cables under the Strait of Hormuz if its infrastructure came under attack. Published on that date, the comments again raised the risk to regional digital infrastructure if war resumes. An unidentified Iranian official said Tehran could block repairs after targeting the cables to prolong communications disruption, including internet services. The U.S. and Iranian foreign ministries did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment, and Gulf states made no immediate comment.
Submarine cables carry about 99% of global internet traffic, but the global impact of any targeting in Hormuz could remain geographically limited: less than 1% of international bandwidth passes through the strait, according to an estimate by Alan Mauldin, research director at TeleGeography, cited by the Reuters report. That does not mean a potential outage would leave regional communications unaffected; its scale would depend on operators’ ability to reroute data traffic and the capacity available on alternative routes. The fallout could extend to financial transactions, e-commerce and cloud computing, the report said. The International Telecommunication Union said cable disruptions could affect government and industrial operations, as well as people’s access to education, health care and banking services. The importance of these networks reflects the region’s reliance on the continued flow of data across interconnected subsea and terrestrial routes.
Restoring communications could be harder during a war, experts cited by the Reuters report said, as high insurance costs and the complexities of obtaining permits to enter territorial waters could lengthen repairs. The unidentified Iranian official pointed to disrupting repairs as a way to prolong the impact of any targeting, making restoration time a key factor in assessing the risk. The International Telecommunication Union said slow repairs, the geographic concentration of infrastructure and many countries’ reliance on a limited number of cable systems pose challenges to resilience. It also said outages can result from human activities or natural hazards and affect essential services across borders. On November 11, the union’s deputy secretary-general said submarine cables experience 150-200 outages a year, affecting economies, government operations and essential services.
The Reuters report said the Red Sea could be a more important target than the Strait of Hormuz, particularly if Iran received support from its Houthi allies in Yemen, but noted that Tehran had not publicly announced a plan to target its cables. A connection between Europe, East Africa and Asia passes through the Red Sea, whose capacity accounts for about 3% of global international demand and about 10% of interregional traffic, according to a TeleGeography analyst cited by the report. The comparison highlights differences in the size and importance of routes, and how the impact of any disruption depends on its location and the ability to shift data to other routes. In July, the International Telecommunication Union approved a report containing recommendations to strengthen submarine cable resilience. The recommendations included diversifying routes and increasing infrastructure redundancy, along with improving preparedness and response.
The risks come as Gulf governments invest in technology to diversify their economies away from oil and build artificial intelligence hubs, while deepening ties with U.S. technology companies, according to the Reuters report. Microsoft plans to invest more than 400 million dollars in subsea and terrestrial telecommunications in the Middle East by 2030, the company said. The company said route diversity enables data to be rerouted when disruptions occur. It also announced plans to spend more than 10 billion dollars in capital and operating expenditure on cloud and AI infrastructure in the region through 2030. This expansion makes communications continuity part of the infrastructure required by regional digital investment, while the scale of any potential impact remains tied to alternative routes, their capacity and the ability to repair cables.