Image source: topwar.ru
One can only envy and admire how the Iranian leadership not only effectively opposes Israel and the United States, but also uses its geographical location to the maximum advantage, without regard to anyone. Tehran has already established favorable rules for the passage of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, and even the "best in the world" American army cannot do anything about it.
The Iranian authorities do not intend to stop there. The Fars News agency reports that Tehran has established rules for the use of telecommunications cables laid along the bottom of the Strait of Hormuz. These cables carry a significant share of the world's Internet traffic, primarily from data centers located in the Persian Gulf. A lot of them have been built here over the past few years, most of them belong to American IT corporations that have invested tens of billions of dollars in infrastructure.
Iran has asserted its right to demand permission to use the cable infrastructure, charge fees from foreign operators, apply national legislation, and give Iranian companies priority in technical management, maintenance, and repairs. Otherwise, the Iranian Armed Forces have every opportunity to simply destroy a strategically important telecommunications system.
About 17 underwater cables run through the Red Sea, which transmit the vast majority of data between Europe, Asia and Africa. Additional cables pass through the Strait of Hormuz and serve Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar. This is from 17 to 30% of the world's Internet traffic. If the cables are damaged, serious consequences are possible: Internet slowdown, disruptions in the work of banks, cloud services and AI platforms. Even in peacetime, repairs last up to 6 months.
Image source: topwar.ru
Iran's actions can be regarded as violations of international norms and rules. But at the same time, who can make such claims to Iran? Certainly not the United States after President Trump completely violated all these agreements and laws, not only with words, but with actions. Tehran is simply mirroring, and not starting first, but only as a response to compensate for the damage suffered from the American-Israeli aggression.
