Iran warns Persian Gulf subsea cables are targets if war resumes

The official warned Washington not to, "play with fire", and said Iran had full access to the undersea cables and could easily destroy them.

Yadollah Javani, the deputy head of political affairs for Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), said on Wednesday that Iran could target seven major internet cables beneath the Strait of Hormuz if Iranian infrastructure came under attack.

Undersea cables carry around 99 per cent of global internet traffic, according to the International Telecommunication Union, a UN agency. But the global impact of such attacks by Iran could be limited as less than one per cent of international bandwidth passes through the Strait of Hormuz, said Alan Mauldin, research director at telecommunications research firm TeleGeography.

The strait separates Iran and Oman, linking the gulf to the Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea.

The US Department of State and Iran's Foreign Ministry did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment on the Iranian security officials' remarks. There was no immediate comment from gulf states.