Ships loiter near subsea cables amid Iran’s warnings to Trump

Iran-linked vessels have been tracked loitering near undersea internet cables in the Gulf of Oman and Strait of Hormuz, amid Iranian officials’ threats to target the infrastructure if US strikes escalate. Their movements raise concern that the ships could be surveying cable routes or preparing to damage them, though the article presents this as a possibility rather than a confirmed plan.

Windward tracked three sanctioned tankers and an Iranian fishing boat in October using ship data and satellite images; some vessels switched off their location transponders, and two tankers carried no commercial cargo. Six active cables cross the Strait, with two more under construction. Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar rely entirely on connections through it, while about a third of India’s westbound internet traffic uses the wider route. The war has also kept cable repair ships away, delaying work on a Meta-linked cable project.