The Iran war is entering its most dangerous phase since February, and the threat has moved from oil tankers to the internet itself. Iran has drawn up detailed plans to attack undersea communications cables in the Strait of Hormuz if the United States launches a fresh offensive, two senior Iranian security officials told Reuters on October 23. Days earlier, President Donald Trump said America could launch "another little Epic Fury" campaign against Iran — and his envoy Tom Barrack said a strike could come "as soon as this weekend." The escalation is trending per news coverage worldwide, with Brent crude jumping above $117 a barrel, its highest since April.
The Iran undersea cables threat marks a sharp widening of the conflict's battlefield. The war, which began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, 2026, has so far been fought through missile exchanges, a US naval blockade of Iranian ports and attacks on shipping. Now Tehran is explicitly putting the region's digital infrastructure — the fiber-optic cables, data centres and AI facilities that underpin Gulf finance and cloud computing — in its crosshairs, telling Washington's Gulf allies they "should hold Washington, not Tehran, responsible for any damage."
What the Iran undersea cables threat actually involves
According to the Reuters report, Iran's plans go beyond rhetoric. The IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohebbi pointed to seven vital undersea cables beneath the Strait of Hormuz on October 19 and warned of "new targets and new weapons," saying the war had entered a lull before a possible "third phase" with a "new geography of war." Top security official Mohsen Rezaei warned this month that US-linked digital infrastructure across the Gulf — including data centres and AI facilities — could be targeted in a renewed conflict.
The doctrine described by the officials is notable: Iran aims not just to cut cables but to prevent their repair, prolonging disruption. Tehran argues the damage is Washington's responsibility, since it would only follow an American attack. No Gulf capital has publicly responded to the threat, and neither the US State Department nor Iran's Foreign Ministry answered Reuters' requests for comment.
Would cutting the cables black out the internet? Probably not — but it would hurt
Experts quoted in coverage urge calm about a global blackout. The seven cables under the Strait of Hormuz carry less than 1% of global international bandwidth, according to TeleGeography — the primary impact would be regional, not a worldwide internet shutdown. Cutting all seven would mean "intermittent, limited internet," slower financial transactions and disrupted data movement, analysts say.
But "regional" understates the exposure. These same lines carry up to 30% of the Gulf region's traffic, and the UAE and its neighbours have spent billions pivoting their economies toward cloud computing, international banking and state-level artificial intelligence. American tech giants have concentrated massive data-centre capacity in the Gulf, so a prolonged outage would paralyse essential regional services and US commercial interests at the same time. Restoring cables during wartime is difficult — repair ships need permits to enter territorial waters, insurance costs spike, and deliberate sabotage can be repeated faster than repairs.
Analysts also flag a more significant potential target than Hormuz: the Red Sea, which carries about 3% of global international demand and roughly 10% of traffic travelling between regions, linking Europe, East Africa and Asia. Iran's Houthi allies in Yemen — who have already stepped up attacks on Saudi Arabia this week — could theoretically play a role there, though Tehran has made no public statement about targeting Red Sea cables.
Trump's "little Epic Fury" warning and the weekend strike question
The cable threat landed alongside a sharp sharpening of US warnings. At a Florida rally on Friday, Trump said the US could launch "another little Epic Fury" campaign against Iran — the name used for the earlier military operation — without saying when or what strategy it would use. Pressed on whether an attack could happen in the coming days, US envoy Tom Barrack answered: "Absolutely," while adding that Trump remained open to a deal.
Trump has repeatedly said he will soon take a "decision" on Iran, and had previously suggested nothing would happen before the November 3 midterm elections. The Washington-Gulf posture has been tightening all week: Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they struck four commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, Houthi attacks on Saudi targets have intensified, and the US State Department has told some diplomats and the families of government staff to leave Saudi Arabia — a signal Washington takes the risk of retaliation seriously.
Why oil is above $117 and what could push it higher
Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose about 3.5% on Friday to pass $117 a barrel at one point before easing to just over $116. It traded around $72 in February, before the war began, and peaked near $126 at the end of April. The rally reflects a market pricing in genuine supply risk: Tehran has also said it would hit Gulf oil facilities if a new US-Israeli offensive is launched, and Iran's Revolutionary Guards claimed strikes on commercial vessels in the Strait — the chokepoint for roughly a fifth of the world's oil.
The threat to undersea cables adds a new layer to the oil story rather than a separate one: it signals that Tehran's "stronger response" to any renewed campaign would span energy, digital and communications infrastructure simultaneously — raising the cost of a US strike and pressuring Gulf states, whose expensive AI and cloud investments sit directly in the firing line, to lean on Washington for restraint.
What to watch next in the Iran escalation
Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran program at the Middle East Institute, told Reuters the threats are designed to deter renewed conflict by making Gulf governments and US companies fear for their investments: "Tehran wants Gulf states and corporate executives to press Trump over the risks his policies pose to their investment plans." Whether that pressure works depends on whether Washington reads the cable threat as deterrence theatre or a credible operational plan — and whether Gulf capitals break their silence.
The immediate watch-list: whether the US acts on Barrack's "this weekend" signal, whether any cable suffers physical damage, whether telecom operators in Oman, the UAE or Qatar issue advisories or reroute traffic, and whether the "third phase" Mohebbi promised materialises with specifics. The war is in its eighth month with talks between Washington and Tehran stalled, earlier strike plans reportedly delayed past the midterms, and Iran claiming fresh attacks on tankers in the Strait — and the move from oil to data suggests the next escalation, if it comes, will be fought on two frontiers at once.
Sources: Reuters (exclusive, October 23), The Guardian via Today News Brief, Anadolu Agency / IRIB, Washington Examiner, Al Jazeera, Middle East Institute, TeleGeography, and Worldlession's earlier reporting on the Iran war.