{"id":92984,"date":"2026-05-01T15:03:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T15:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/92984\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T15:03:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T15:03:25","slug":"could-a-prolonged-conflict-between-the-us-and-iran-threaten-another-vital-link","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/92984\/","title":{"rendered":"Could a prolonged conflict between the US and Iran threaten another vital link?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The world\u2019s eyes have been fixed on the oil tankers clogging the <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/china\/diplomacy\/article\/3350588\/closed-open-closed-why-iran-changing-course-strait-hormuz?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Strait of Hormuz<\/a>. But the US-Israel war on Iran has exposed a quieter vulnerability: the undersea cables that form the digital backbone of the Middle East.Last week, a media outlet affiliated with Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps highlighted that the strait functioned not only as a crucial chokepoint for oil and gas shipments but also as an essential corridor for <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/china-science?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">internet communications.<\/a><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1o401188 css-16lwkd e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777311971_539_maxresdefault.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p data-qa=\"SCMPYoutubeVideoPreview-PreviewDuration\" class=\"css-1vqvq42 e1o401181\">02:45<\/p>\n<p data-qa=\"SCMPYoutubeVideoPreview-PreviewTitle\" class=\"css-zasw6y e1o401182\">Indonesian seafarer among 20,000 stranded for months as Strait of Hormuz remains blocked<\/p>\n<p>Indonesian seafarer among 20,000 stranded for months as Strait of Hormuz remains blocked<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The outlet warned that damage to multiple cable systems would trigger a \u201cdigital catastrophe\u201d and inflict multibillion-dollar losses on southern Persian Gulf countries which rely on undersea cables for more than 90 per cent of their connectivity.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The report emphasised that Gulf nations would suffer more severe consequences from any cable damage than Iran, given Tehran\u2019s greater reliance on terrestrial routes for internet traffic.<\/p>\n<p>Why do the cables matter?<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Beyond the Strait of Hormuz, the Red Sea hosts a dense network of undersea cables. Various estimations point to around 15 to 17 major submarine cables passing through the waterway, carrying more than 90 per cent of data traffic between Europe and Asia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The world\u2019s eyes have been fixed on the oil tankers clogging the Strait of Hormuz. But the US-Israel&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[32836,10552,488,54,359,708,3358,34,46,49,39,1000,32835,32834,101,706],"class_list":{"0":"post-92984","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-persian-gulf","8":"tag-2africa-project","9":"tag-alan-mauldin","10":"tag-asia","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-gulf","13":"tag-houthi","14":"tag-indian-ocean","15":"tag-iran","16":"tag-islamic-revolutionary-guard-corps","17":"tag-middle-east","18":"tag-persian-gulf","19":"tag-red-sea","20":"tag-starlink","21":"tag-stimson-centre","22":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","23":"tag-yemen"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116499932963144737","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}