Iran has issued a stark warning over undersea internet cables crossing the Strait of Hormuz, raising the prospect that vital digital infrastructure could become another pressure point in its escalating confrontation with the United States.
Brigadier General Hossein Mohebi, spokesman for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said seven major cables passed beneath the strategic waterway, carrying data on which the world’s internet and commercial networks depend.
“We are reminding them of this so that the enemy knows,” he said.
Mohebi later posted an image that appeared to show a missile alongside the ominous message: “The world will see what will happen.”
The warning comes amid mounting threats from Tehran against regional fibre-optic cables, data centres and artificial intelligence facilities. Mohsen Rezaee, a former IRGC commander and secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, has warned that digital infrastructure worth $2tn across the region could fall within Iran’s reach if hostilities resume.
“If war breaks out again, the many undersea cables, data centers, and AI facilities in the region worth $2trillion will come within our range,” he said.
Iranian hardliners have also advocated using the cables as a “pressure tool”, while the IRGC has previously identified major American technology companies among potential targets.
The stakes are significant. Submarine fibre-optic networks carry most international data traffic, and damage to a concentrated route can disrupt connectivity across multiple countries. Security expert Andreas Krieg of King’s College London has warned that such infrastructure is “difficult to protect continuously”.
But the threat should not be mistaken for a guaranteed global internet blackout. The International Cable Protection Committee said in May that bandwidth passing through Hormuz accounted for less than 1 per cent of international bandwidth worldwide, describing the potential consequences as “regional rather than global”. Networks can also reroute traffic through alternative cable and land-based connections.
The warning nevertheless arrives as Hormuz becomes a focal point of the wider conflict. Iran has restricted shipping through the strait since US-Israeli strikes began on February 28, while President Donald Trump has insisted Washington has “total control” of the waterway.
Reports of vessels striking mines have added to the danger, although the latest claim involving a tanker carrying two million barrels of oil has not been independently verified.
For Tehran, the cables represent another potential vulnerability in a chokepoint already central to global energy supplies. The threat is clear; the scale of any resulting digital disruption remains uncertain.
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