The Iranian press agency Tasnim, affiliated to the Pasdaran, fears the threat. Cutting the cables would put financial, banking and e-commerce transactions at risk.
Tension in the Middle East remains very high, with a truce between the United States and Iran now formally expired and unilaterally extended by the American President Donald Trumpawaiting a negotiation that is struggling to materialize.
In this highly volatile context, in recent days the Iranian media seem to have indicated (not even too subtly) a new field of possibility escalation should the word return to arms.
The veiled threat of the Pasdaran
In a detailed report published on Wednesday, the news agency Tasnim (linked to the Iranian Pasdaran) has mapped and analyzed everything the region’s internet infrastructureespecially regarding i submarine cables of the Internet and the cloud infrastructure of the Persian Gulf.
The article included a detailed map of the underwater internet cables in the Strait of Hormuzidentifying systems such as FALCON, AAE-1, TGN-Gulf and SEA-ME-WE that connect the Gulf countries to the rest of the world.
The Strait of Hormuz is in fact not only an energy hub, but also a crucial corridor for global communicationson which countries such as the Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia depend.
Not surprisingly, the article underlined that a “Simultaneous damage to several main cables” could trigger major internet disruptions across the entire region.
This would have very laughable effects on Iran, again according to Tasnim, since the petromonarchies depend much more than Tehran on these maritime internet routes. The article from the Pasdaran press agency actually suggested that Tehran would have to an advantage in a conflict targeting these infrastructures.
The importance of submarine cables
To fully understand the scope of this veiled threat, it is necessary to clarify an often overlooked fact: beyond 97-99% of global internet traffic travels through undersea fiber optic cablesnot via satellite.
These cables, laid on the seabed, form the true physical backbone of our digital age, enabling everything, from international financial transactions to cloud computing and artificial intelligence services.
The Strait of Hormuz is therefore configured not only as an energy transit point, but also as a crucial “bottleneck” for this invisible network.
According to the Tasnim report, at least seven major international cable systems cross or pass close to the waters of the Straitincluding FALCON, AAE-1, TGN-Gulf and SEA-ME-WE.
These optical fiber bundles connect the technological hubs of the Gulf countries (United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait) with the markets of Europe, Asia and Africa. For these petromonarchies, which are investing billions of dollars to transform themselves into hubs of AI and digital innovation, Hormuz cables represent the indispensable “pipeline”. for their ambitious post-oil economic diversification.
We are therefore faced with a structural asymmetry; because while Iran can rely on alternative land routes (via Turkey, the Caucasus and Russia) for part of its connectivity, the Gulf countries depend almost exclusively on these southern sea routes, making their digital economy an exposed and vulnerable target.
The possible consequences
This would be a potentially catastrophic escalation, or rather, one “digital catastrophe”.
The most immediate and serious paralysis it would hit the financial markets. The stock exchanges of Dubai and Doha, the beating heart of Gulf capitalism, would go haywire, blocking millions of transactions per second.
E-commerce would ceasethe banking systems of those countries would find themselves blinded and entire sectors of the economy, from logistics to tourism, would come to a halt.
An attack on these cables would directly affect the physical infrastructure of giants such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) e Microsoftwhich have their regional hubs in the Emirates and Bahrain (some already targeted by Iranian drones).
According to the Stimson Center, damage to Hormuz would cause economic problems not only in the region, but also in Europe, Africa and Asia. In fact, over 15% of global data traffic passes through the Straitincluding a significant share of the routes connecting Asia to Europe.
Finally, the logistical nightmare. Unlike an oil pipeline, repairing an undersea cable in a war zone is a Herculean undertaking. The specialized ships would in fact have to operate in mined and disputed waters.
Repair times would then take weeks or monthsprovided Tehran allows it, condemning the region to a long and dangerous period of digital blackout.
