Iran International
Long viewed as merely an oil chokepoint, the Strait of Hormuz is now emerging as a digital flashpoint, after Iran floated “protection fees” for subsea fiber-optic cables crossing the waterway in a move experts warn could give Tehran new leverage.
Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesperson for Iran's military command center, wrote on X last week: “We will impose tolls on internet cables.”
Media outlets close to the IRGC have also said companies such as Google, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon must comply with the Islamic Republic’s laws, and that cable-owning companies must pay permit fees for cables to pass through.
Subsea cables carry the overwhelming majority of the global internet and financial traffic, connecting Europe, Asia and the Persian Gulf through a vast underwater network that powers everything from banking systems and cloud computing to government communications and energy markets.
The risk is no longer theoretical. Alcatel Submarine Networks, the world’s largest cable-laying company, has already paused subsea cable repair operations in the Persian Gulf after issuing force majeure notices tied to growing security risks in the region.
“The undersea network of undersea cables, it's not just important, it’s absolutely critical – trillions of dollars of financial transactions take place through these cables,” said Tom Sharpe, who served 27 years as a Royal Navy officer commanding four warships.
“It’s the internet, which of course if enough of that collapses can have a devastating effect," he said.
While these networks are global, experts say the Persian Gulf is uniquely vulnerable because there are fewer redundant cable routes compared to regions like the Atlantic.
“When you go to other places in the world, let’s say the [Persian] Gulf, there are far fewer, and therefore that redundancy becomes less and less, and therefore the vulnerability goes up,” Sharpe explained.
Iranian lawmakers discussed plans last week that could target submarine cables linking Persian Gulf littoral states to Europe and Asia. Iranian state-linked media have also floated proposals requiring foreign operators to comply with Iranian licensing laws and pay fees for maintenance and repair access.
The proposals appear to be part of a broader effort by Iranian hardliners to test how far Tehran can extend its authority over infrastructure crossing the Persian Gulf, even when that infrastructure is privately owned or tied to foreign governments.
Escalate, test, adjust
Sharpe believes Tehran is following a familiar escalation model — gradually testing international reactions before potentially taking more aggressive steps.
“I think, look, it seems to me at the moment we’re in the sort of inject uncertainty phase. Let’s see what the markets do. Let’s see how the companies react. Let’s see what insurers do,” Sharpe said. “They escalate. They test. They adjust.”
According to Sharpe, the strategy mirrors tactics previously employed by Russia around undersea infrastructure and later adapted by the Houthis in the Red Sea.
“They’re very good at escalation management,” he added. “They don’t go straight to the nuclear option and start just snipping cables.”
Charlie Brown, Senior Advisor at United Against Nuclear Iran, who specializes in maritime sanctions enforcement and the tracking of illicit shipping, said the issue extends far beyond internet access alone because submarine cables often cross multiple jurisdictions and are owned by consortiums involving companies and governments from around the world.
“This goes beyond merely the cable itself and the data on it,” Brown told Iran International. “These are cross-jurisdictional issues that affect many people in many different jurisdictions.”
New toll booth under the sea
Brown described the Islamic Republic’s approach as resembling a mafia-style protection racket aimed at controlling — rather than immediately destroying — critical underwater infrastructure.
“Yeah, it’s very interesting. I mean, so this ends up showing that it’s a money-making racket threatening. So it’s basically a gangster move,” Brown said.
“The IRGC is trying to extend their control to include things on the seabed that don’t belong to them,” he added.
Experts say global internet infrastructure has enough redundancy to prevent a total communications collapse, but warn the bigger risk is the normalization of payments to Tehran.
Max Meizlish, Senior Research Analyst for the Center on Economic and Financial Power at Foundation for Defense of Democracies, sees the cable issue as an extension of Iran’s broader attempts to exert control over the Strait of Hormuz.
“I think that this is just another instance of the Iranian regime putting in place essentially a shakedown in the strait,” Meizlish said.
Since the war began, he said, hardline factions within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have increasingly pushed to expand Tehran’s leverage over both maritime and digital chokepoints.
“We see slowly Iran extending its sphere of influence,” Meizlish said. “The IRGC hardliners want to come out of this conflict actually from a position of relative strength.”
A warning to Washington
Much of what happens next may ultimately depend on enforcement. Existing US sanctions prohibit dealings with the IRGC, meaning companies that pay such fees could expose themselves to secondary sanctions.
But if enforcement weakens, Meizlish warns, firms may gradually begin viewing payments to Tehran as simply another cost of operating in the region.
“Already it’s come out within the shipping sector,” Meizlish told Iran International. “Some ships have made these payments. We’ve seen traffic go through the Tehran toll booth.”
“If the US doesn’t step up pressure and actually actively enforce these sanctions, then some firms will determine that maybe in their risk-based approach, they can go ahead and do this,” he said.
“That would be a strategic error.”
