Iran has detailed plans to strike Gulf undersea cables if war resumes, Reuters reports
Two senior Iranian security officials told Reuters that Tehran has drawn up detailed plans to target Gulf undersea communications cables — and to prevent repairs — if the US and Israel attack Iran again.
Tehran has drawn up detailed plans to target undersea communications cables in the Gulf if the United States and Israel attack Iran again, two senior Iranian security officials told Reuters.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, gave few details of how or where exactly Tehran would carry out such attacks. But one said Iran would aim to prevent repairs after any attacks, to prolong disruptions to communications, including internet connections.
“If Iran is attacked, there will be no more red lines … from undersea cables to military bases, including covert ones,” one of the officials said. The official warned Washington not to “play with fire”, and said Iran had full access to the undersea cables and could easily destroy them.
A second official said Washington’s Gulf allies “should hold Washington, not Tehran, responsible for any damage to undersea cables”.
The disclosure follows Wednesday’s warning by Yadollah Javani, deputy head of political affairs for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, that Iran could target seven major internet cables beneath the Strait of Hormuz if Iranian infrastructure came under attack.
The International Telecommunication Union says undersea cables carry around 99 per cent of global internet traffic. But the global impact of such attacks could be limited: less than 1 per cent of international bandwidth passes through the Strait of Hormuz, said Alan Mauldin, research director at telecommunications research firm TeleGeography.
The US State Department and Iran’s foreign ministry did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
Sources: Reuters via Free Malaysia Today
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