Iran Openly Threatening the Hormuz Subsea Cables

Iranian officials spent October openly threatening the subsea internet cables under the Strait of Hormuz. On October 12, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Gulf cables, data centers, and artificial intelligence facilities could get hit if the US and Israel restart the war.1 A week later, Revolutionary Guard spokesman Hossein Mohebbi pointed out the seven major cables under the strait and said new targets were coming.2 On October 23, two senior security officials told Reuters that Iran has detailed plans to hit Gulf cables if it’s attacked again.3 Back in May, the talk was about charging the cables fees and requiring permits,4 so this is a clear escalation. A Hormuz cut would mostly hurt the Gulf.5 However, less than 1 percent of international bandwidth passes through the strait,6 but Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar have no subsea cable route around it.7 Windward, the Maritime AI Company, caught sanctioned, Iran-linked tankers drifting and going…