Iran Threatens to Cut Gulf Internet Cables as US Envoy Warns of Weekend Strike

DUBAI — Iran has drawn up detailed plans to sever undersea communications cables in the Gulf if the United States and Israel attack it again, two senior Iranian security officials told Reuters — the first indication that Tehran is prepared to extend its war with Washington from oil tankers to the fiber-optic arteries carrying the region's internet and financial traffic.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Iran would aim not only to strike the cables but to prevent their repair, prolonging disruptions to internet connections, financial transactions and cloud computing. "If Iran is attacked, there will be no more red lines ... from undersea cables to military bases, including covert ones," one of them said, warning Washington not to "play with fire" and asserting Iran had full access to the cables and could easily destroy them.

The disclosure widens a conflict that began on February 28, when the United States and Israel launched a war on the Islamic Republic. With a US envoy saying American strikes could resume "absolutely" as soon as this weekend, Tehran's threat lands on an explosive week: oil above $117 a barrel, a record number of ship attacks in October, and two abandoned supertankers burning in the Strait of Hormuz.

"No More Red Lines"

The Reuters account was explicit about intent but thin on operational detail: the officials gave few particulars of how or where Iran would carry out such attacks. What they spelled out was doctrine — deny repairs, stretch the blackout. Undersea cables carry around 99 percent of global internet traffic, according to the International Telecommunication Union, so even a regional disruption would cascade through banking systems, trading floors and government communications.

The threat is not idle. On Wednesday, Yadollah Javani, the deputy head of political affairs for Iran's Revolutionary Guards, said Iran could target seven major internet cables beneath the Strait of Hormuz if Iranian infrastructure came under attack. Tehran's forces have restricted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz for months, mining the "unauthorized" southern routes near the Omani coast.

Analysts, however, caution against overstating the global fallout. Less than 1 percent of international bandwidth passes through the Strait of Hormuz, said Alan Mauldin, research director at telecommunications research firm TeleGeography — the world's cable mesh is built to reroute around single failures. But a campaign that deliberately blocks repairs could still inflict prolonged pain on Gulf financial centers, oil trading and the region's growing cloud industry.

"Absolutely": A Strike This Weekend?

The cable threat arrived alongside a startlingly casual admission from Washington's envoy in the region. Asked on Friday whether the United States could strike Iran this weekend, Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkiye and the administration's point man on Syria, answered: "Could there be a strike this weekend? Absolutely."

Barrack, a longtime business partner and friend of President Donald Trump, told Israeli army radio that Trump remained open to a deal after months of talks. But he directly contradicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's vow to topple the clerical government, insisting Washington was not pursuing regime change. "If you keep threatening the world, our allies, the Gulf, there will be a consequence. The consequence won't be regime change," Barrack said. "The problem with regime change always is, what's the day-two scenario?"

Trump himself downplayed his envoy's remarks. "That was my ambassador? He's a pretty powerful man, I guess. If that's the case, I don't know anything about it," Trump told reporters in Florida. Days earlier, the foreign ministers who met in Istanbul had jointly warned against renewed strikes on Iran. Netanyahu, who faces elections on Tuesday, has repeatedly vowed to topple Iran's clerical rule following two major bombing campaigns since last year.

Gulf Barred to US Warships; Oil Tops $117

Tehran answered the weekend threats with defiance. Iran's armed forces chief of staff, Ali Abdollahi, said on Saturday that American military ships would never be allowed into the Gulf "under any circumstances" — and that President Trump would "take that dream to his grave." Iran has repeatedly targeted vessels attempting the southern Hormuz route Tehran considers illegal, in retaliation for an American counterblockade on Iranian ports.

Markets are pricing in the danger. Brent crude, the international benchmark, jumped as much as 3.8 percent to $117.45 a barrel during New York trading on Friday — its highest since April — before settling at $116.72. Prices have risen more than 10 percent this month on fears Washington and Israel will intensify attacks after the US midterm elections on November 3. Bob McNally, president of Rapidan Energy, warned that crude could quickly reach about $150 a barrel if the conflict escalated and inflicted extensive damage on critical oil infrastructure.

October: The Worst Month on Record for Ships

The oil rally rests on a grim maritime ledger. October has been the worst month on record for attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and nearby waterways, according to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, which has tracked maritime security incidents since 2017. Senior fellow Noam Raydan recorded 28 confirmed and reported attacks in the strait and surrounding waters this month — and 113 since the US-Israeli war with Iran began on February 28.

The tally broadly matches the International Maritime Organisation's 120 incidents across the strait and wider West Asia since the conflict began. A Reuters review of the IMO list and MarineTraffic data found more than 30 supertankers damaged — including 11 in October alone, roughly 3.5 percent of the global Very Large Crude Carrier fleet. Greece-based consultancy Marisks called October "the most intense period of maritime attacks in and around the Strait of Hormuz since the escalation of hostilities in March."

On Friday, the Revolutionary Guards said two supertankers carrying more than 4.5 million barrels of crude were abandoned at sea after striking naval mines in the southern strait. "Their engine rooms were disabled by an explosion and a fierce fire," the Guards said. The vessels had attempted what Tehran calls an "unauthorized route" — a warning to shipowners willing to load cargoes inside the Gulf, lured by daily freight rates exceeding $1 million.

Missiles Over Riyadh and a Spy-Chief Warning

The war's reach extended to the Saudi capital early on Saturday, when Saudi air defences intercepted a Houthi ballistic missile aimed at Riyadh, the Saudi-led coalition said, and destroyed a drone over the Eastern Province. Explosions were heard across the capital before the civil defence directorate announced the danger had passed in Riyadh, Najran and Wadi al-Dawasir.

Washington is also recalibrating the threat to its own people. Iran has "substantially increased" its efforts to target Americans in the Middle East and beyond, US national intelligence chief Jay Clayton warned on Friday in a memo to Secretary of State Marco Rubio first reported by Axios — following the State Department's decision this week to pull non-essential staff and their families out of Saudi Arabia amid escalating Houthi attacks.

Diplomacy, for now, is stalled. With a US envoy floating a weekend attack, Iran threatening the internet's undersea arteries, oil at six-month highs and missiles flying over Riyadh, the coming days may decide whether the standoff cools — or becomes the most dangerous phase of the war.