Dubai: In a major threat to global connectivity, Iran has allegedly threatened to damage undersea internet cables in the Red Sea. This would have a major impact on internet speed across multiple countries in the world.
While this threat has not been confirmed by officials in Iran or the intelligence community, several notable X handles have brought up the issue. One of these belong to Lebanese-Australian entrepreneur Mario Nawfal. The vulnerability is real, the cables are there and the potential damage is enormous, he has said, as reported by TOI.
“Iran’s now threatening to cut undersea internet cables if Gulf states keep hosting US troops,” Nawfal said.
“Those cables carry 17% of global traffic, including UAE and Saudi AI hubs backed by Amazon, Microsoft, Google. If they snap, it’s months of outages, not hours. Meta’s contractor already pulled out of the Persian Gulf,” he added.
SungHoon Lee, the world’s highest IQ 276 holder, said that he warned about the internet cables “18 days ago.”
“I warned about this 18 days ago. Now Iran is threatening to CUT the undersea cables that carry 95% of ALL global internet traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Not a hypothetical. Not a ‘what if’. They SAID it. This went from warning to reality in 18 days. If you didn’t prepare then – prepare NOW,” Lee said in a post.
There is a dense web of fibre optic cables beneath the waters of the Red Sea that carry an estimated 30% of regional internet traffic and connects continents like Asia, Europe and the Middle East. These are responsible for carrying everything from financial transactions and cloud services to video calls, emails, and AI workloads. The cables also connect some of the world’s most significant emerging AI infrastructure.
Cutting these cables would not just slow down social media, but being down several operations to a standstill.
India is among the countries that could be affected if Iran plans something of that nature. The cables runs through landing stations in Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Pakistan, India and Saudi Arabia.
Significant data flows connect Indian users to servers in West Asia, Europe, and beyond. India is also one of the largest consumers of internet traffic.
A disruption to cables will directly affect internet speeds, cloud service reliability and digital business operations across India. Given India’s growing dependence on cloud infrastructure, digital payments and AI-powered services, a prolonged period of degraded connectivity would carry multiple economic consequences.
Alcatel Submarine Networks, the French state-owned company responsible for laying the cable, has issued force majeure notices to customers. The company has also reported the stranding of its installation ship, the Ile De Batz, off the coast of Dammam, Saudi Arabia, according to a Bloomberg report.
