Media linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is floating a plan to tax and control undersea internet cables passing through the Strait of Hormuz. The proposal targets infrastructure carrying $10 trillion in daily transactions.
Let's talk about critical infrastructure chokepoints and geopolitical leverage.
The Strait of Hormuz is already one of the world's most strategic passages. About 21% of global petroleum passes through it. Now IRGC-linked outlets are suggesting Iran assert control over the fiber optic cables running through the same waters — cables that carry much of the internet traffic between Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
The logic is purely about leverage. If Iran can credibly threaten to tax, monitor, or cut those cables, it gains negotiating power far beyond its economic or military weight. The internet doesn't route around damage as easily as the old saying suggests — not when the damage is to physical infrastructure in a geographic bottleneck.
Several major cable systems traverse the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman: the SEA-ME-WE (Southeast Asia–Middle East–Western Europe) series, FLAG (Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe), and others. These aren't redundant systems with easy alternatives. Disrupting them would significantly impact internet connectivity and financial transactions across multiple continents.
The $10 trillion daily transaction figure is the kind of number that makes headlines, but what matters more is the potential for disruption. Financial markets, cloud services, and international communications depend on low-latency connections that these cables provide. Cutting or degrading them wouldn't stop the internet entirely — traffic would route through satellites and alternative terrestrial paths — but it would slow things down and create instability.
This isn't the first time a state actor has threatened undersea cables. Russia has been accused of surveilling and potentially preparing to sabotage transatlantic cables. China has invested heavily in cable infrastructure, raising concerns about potential leverage. But Iran's position is unique because .
