Iran Threatens 'World's Internet' as Revolutionary Guards Spokesman Shares Apparent AI-Generated Missile Image

Iran's Revolutionary Guards have warned that the 'world's internet' relies on undersea cables running beneath the Strait of Hormuz, in a message aimed at Tehran's adversaries.

Brigadier General Hossein Mohebi, spokesman for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said seven major cables passed beneath the waterway. 'All of which the world's internet and commercial data depend on; we are reminding them of this so that the enemy knows,' he said.

Mohebi also shared an image on his X account that appeared to be AI-generated. It showed a missile alongside the caption 'The world will see what will happen.' He did not explain what weapon the image was meant to represent or whether the post was linked to the cables.

Missile Post Adds to a Run of Warnings

Mohebi became the IRGC's spokesman earlier this year, replacing Ali-Mohammad Naeini. His post followed a warning earlier this month from Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council and a former IRGC commander, about the region's digital infrastructure.

'If war breaks out again, the many undersea cables, data centers, and AI facilities in the region worth $2 trillion (about £1.5 trillion) will come within our range', Rezaei said. He gave no breakdown of the figure and did not name any specific site.

The warnings follow attacks on data centres and US business interests in Bahrain and the UAE during the conflict, Al Jazeera reported. Andreas Krieg, a senior lecturer in security studies at King's College London, said undersea cables 'are difficult to protect continuously and disruption can affect several countries simultaneously'.

He described Rezaei's warning as 'fundamentally about deterrence', aimed 'as much at Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and Doha as at Washington'.

How Much of the Internet Really Runs Through Hormuz

Industry analysis presents a narrower picture than Mohebi's claim. Cybersecurity publication inCyber reported that the cables affected by disruption at Hormuz account for less than 1% of global international bandwidth.

It concluded that a total outage at the strait would not trigger a global blackout, although the regional consequences would be significant.

The International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC), a Portsmouth-based body that promotes cable protection, said five active submarine cable system segments crossed the strait at the time of its assessment, with additional systems under development, the Express reported.

The committee added that modern networks are designed to reroute traffic through alternative submarine and land-based connections following outages.

Mohebi's reference to seven cables and the ICPC's count of five active segments are not necessarily directly comparable: one refers to cables without further explanation, while the other specifies active system segments at the time of an assessment.

Gulf Neighbours Would Feel It First

Alternative routes are not equally available across the region. inCyber identified Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Iraq as particularly exposed because of their limited route diversity and reliance on cables passing through the strait.

The analysis distinguished between cables passing through Hormuz and those passing through Iranian waters. It identified two systems in the latter category: FALCON and Gulf Bridge International.

According to inCyber, those are also Iraq's only two international submarine cable systems in service, leaving the country particularly vulnerable to disruption affecting them.

The UAE lands most of its cable systems at Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman, outside the chokepoint. Saudi Arabia draws most of its bandwidth from cables on its Red Sea coast.

Iran, meanwhile, has spent more than a decade developing its domestic National Information Network. inCyber argued that prolonged disruption would weigh more heavily on neighbouring economies than on Iran's. A domestic network, however, is not the same as uninterrupted access to international services.

Why Digital Infrastructure Features in the Warning

The threats come as Gulf governments invest in artificial intelligence and data centre capacity, tying their economic plans more closely to international connectivity and technology companies.

Krieg said the warning identified 'a new category of strategic infrastructure that connects Gulf economic diversification directly to American technological power'.

Damage to cables could affect banking, cloud services and business communications, particularly in countries with fewer backup routes. Rerouting may preserve connectivity, but the availability of alternatives varies between networks and locations.

The claim that the entire world's internet depends on Hormuz overstates the strait's role. The more immediate concern is regional: whether countries with limited alternatives could maintain reliable connections if several cable systems were disrupted.