Reuters: Iran Has Plans to Strike Undersea Internet Cables in Gulf

Iran has drawn up detailed plans to strike undersea telecommunications cables in the Persian Gulf if the United States and Israel attack it again, Reuters reported on Saturday, October 24, citing two senior Iranian security officials.

The officials did not say where or how Iran might hit the cables. One of them said that in the event of an attack Tehran would also try to obstruct repairs, in order to keep communications and internet outages in place for as long as possible.

"If Iran is attacked, there will be no more red lines – from undersea cables to military bases, including secret ones."

Earlier threats and expert doubts

Earlier, Yadollah Javani, deputy head of the political bureau of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Iran could attack seven major internet cables near the Strait of Hormuz if Iranian infrastructure were hit.

Experts Reuters spoke to say that the global consequences of damaging cables in the Strait of Hormuz specifically could be limited, since less than 1% of international telecommunications bandwidth passes through it.

Wider escalation fears

The Financial Times wrote that the Iranian authorities are discussing possible strikes on American forces in Europe in response to further escalation by Washington. Fears of escalation are also visible elsewhere: CNN reported that the US is evacuating diplomats and families from the Middle East. More in our world news.