DUBAI, October 24, 2026 (DAILYNWZ) — Iran has drawn up plans to attack undersea internet cables in the Gulf if the United States and Israel launch fresh strikes, two senior Iranian security officials said, raising the prospect of disruptions to communications and digital services across a region investing heavily in technology.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, gave few details about how or where any attacks might take place. One said Tehran would seek to prevent damaged cables from being repaired, prolonging disruptions that could affect internet connections and other communications.
“If Iran is attacked, there will be no more red lines … from undersea cables to military bases, including covert ones,” one official said, warning Washington not to “play with fire.” The official claimed Iran had full access to the cables and could destroy them easily.
The remarks follow a warning on Wednesday by Yadollah Javani, deputy head of political affairs for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), that Tehran could target seven major internet cables beneath the Strait of Hormuz if Iranian infrastructure came under attack.
Undersea cables carry about 99% of global internet traffic, according to the International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations agency. But the wider impact of attacks in the Strait of Hormuz could be limited: less than 1% of international bandwidth passes through the strait, said Alan Mauldin, research director at telecommunications research firm TeleGeography. The waterway separates Iran and Oman and connects the Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.
Multiple cable cuts could still slow internet services and disrupt financial transactions, online commerce and cloud computing, analysts said. The scale of the damage would depend on how quickly operators could reroute traffic and how much capacity alternative routes could handle. Wartime repairs could prove difficult, with higher insurance costs and delays in securing permission to enter territorial waters adding to the obstacles.
Iran’s warnings reflect a view among its leadership that any renewed US military campaign would prompt a stronger response than previous confrontations. Senior security official Mohsen Rezaei warned this month that US-linked digital infrastructure across the Gulf, including data centres and artificial intelligence facilities, could be targeted.
Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran program at the Middle East Institute in Washington, said the threats were intended to deter further attacks by making Gulf governments and US companies worry about their investments. Tehran wants them to pressure US President Donald Trump over the risks his policies pose to regional investment, Vatanka said.
A more consequential potential target could be the Red Sea, which carries data between Europe, East Africa and Asia. Routes through the sea account for about 3% of global international demand and around 10% of traffic between regions, Mauldin said. Iran has made no public statement indicating plans to attack cables there, though analysts say the threat could be greater if Tehran received support from its Houthi allies in Yemen.
The risks come as Gulf governments seek to diversify their economies beyond oil and establish themselves as artificial intelligence hubs, building closer ties with US technology companies. Iranian strikes hit two Amazon Web Services facilities in the United Arab Emirates in March and damaged infrastructure near one of its facilities in Bahrain. At the height of the war that month, the IRGC named Microsoft, Google, Apple and Nvidia as legitimate targets.
Land-based connections can provide alternative routes, and Gulf states and US technology firms are investing in more resilient networks. Microsoft plans to invest more than $400 million in subsea and terrestrial connectivity across the Middle East by 2030.
The US State Department and Iran’s Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment on the officials’ remarks. Gulf states had no immediate comment.