The threat of Persian Gulf data centers by Iran: to what extent is the region's internet at risk?

The UAE is particularly at risk, he said, because its AI strategy is "deeply integrated with US tech companies," making Emirati infrastructure "more attractive as a target for Iran." Qatar, with its diplomatic ties to Tehran, is "in a somewhat better position politically."

Iran has warned that in the event of a war with the United States, cables and data centers in the region may be attacked; Especially in a situation where Iran's Yemeni allies are in control of one of the vital bottlenecks of the Internet.

According to Ambassador Arjan, he wrote in a report about this:

Mohsen Rezaei, Iran's top security official, has warned that cables, data centers and artificial intelligence installations across the region may be targeted if the war with America flares up again.

This warning comes as the seizure of parts of Yemen's territory along the Red Sea coast by Iran-backed Ansarullah last month has raised concerns about the security of internet cables connecting Europe and Asia. Heavy clashes are going on between the Saudi-backed government in Yemen and Ansarullah in several places, including the Bab al-Mandab Strait; The strait through which nearly one-fifth of the world's Internet traffic passes.

During the previous conflicts between America and Israel with Iran, American data centers and business interests in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates were targeted. Tehran announced that these attacks were carried out in response to US attacks on Iranian civilian facilities.

Although direct attacks have largely ended after the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States in June, attacks on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz - the world's vital oil bottleneck - continue.

Why are data centers and internet cables vulnerable?

Because a huge amount of data is transmitted through a limited number of narrow paths. According to the estimates of the research company "TeleGeography", more than 90% of the data transfer capacity between Europe and Asia is moved through the cables under the Red Sea bed.

These cables enter the sea through the Bab al-Mandab strait; The strait, which is about 26 kilometers (16 miles) wide at its narrowest point, is one of the busiest sea routes connecting Europe to Asia.

Cables can be severed by ships' anchors or acts of sabotage, and repairs in war zones require permits and security guarantees.

Data centers, which provide the infrastructure of banking applications and cloud services, are considered large and stable targets. Andreas Craig, a senior lecturer in security studies at King's College London, told Al Jazeera: "In order to completely disable a facility, it is not necessary for the attack to destroy the servers themselves."

He stated that data centers depend on electricity, cooling systems and uninterrupted communications; While the continuous protection of submarine cables is difficult and disrupting them can affect several countries at the same time.

Has Iran threatened to attack data centers and cables?

Yes, this threat has been repeated many times since the start of the war in February. On March 11, Ambassador Arjan officially announced that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps had published a list of "new Iranian targets"; A list that includes cloud infrastructures belonging to Google, Microsoft and Oracle companies in Israel and some Persian Gulf countries.

In the same month, the IRGC named 17 American companies - including Google, Meta and Apple - as well as the UAE artificial intelligence company G42 as possible targets in a Telegram post.

Craig said he takes Rezaei's threat seriously, but distinguished between Iran's ability to cause major disruption and its ability to "systematically destroy the Persian Gulf's digital infrastructure."

He said: "What makes Mohsen Rezaei's warning particularly important is that he is not merely threatening another set of goals; rather, he is identifying a new category of strategic infrastructure that directly links economic diversification in the Persian Gulf to American technological power."

He described the nature of the warning as "mainly deterrence-based" and said the message "is addressed to Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and Doha as much as it is to Washington," giving Gulf states a reason to prevent another US attack.

Has the technology infrastructure and cables been attacked before?

yes In March, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced that two of the company's facilities in the United Arab Emirates were the target of a direct drone attack, and that an attack near one of its facilities in Bahrain also "caused physical damage to our infrastructure."

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank announced that the bank's application was down due to a nationwide disruption to IT systems in the region, although the bank did not directly link the issue to AWS.

In September, AWS announced that it was unable to restore the status of several sites in Bahrain and one site in the United Arab Emirates.

In February 2024, three undersea cables were damaged, most likely due to the anchor being dragged by a cargo ship disabled by a Yemeni missile. Repairs took months, according to industry consensus reported by Data Center Dynamics.

In September 2025, two cables were cut near Jeddah, slowing internet access across the Middle East and South Asia. There was no confirmed cause of the incident.

Craig said the March attacks "revealed the limitations of treating commercial infrastructure as something that automatically benefits national air defense."

"Gulf armies can intercept most incoming threats, but even a small number of successful attacks can cause disproportionate economic consequences," he said. He added that relatively cheap drones can threaten facilities that store billions of dollars worth of equipment.

How will this affect the ambitions of the Persian Gulf technology hub?

Investment continues, but the war has already damaged the sector. The Persian Gulf countries have based their post-oil economy on technology.

In Abu Dhabi, Emirati company G42 is building Stargate UAE with OpenAI, Nvidia and others. The project is located in a 5 GW AI campus of the UAE and the United States.

Saudi Ambassador Arjan reported that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, Humain, an artificial intelligence company headed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, launched in May 2025 to build data centers and an artificial intelligence model in Arabic.

Qatar's sovereign wealth fund joined US investor Blue Owl in September 2025 in a $3 billion effort to build a data center.

In September, Microsoft announced in a blog post that it would invest more than $10 billion in Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates by 2030, with a new focus on "digital resilience."

But AWS said it had explored "all options" to recover some of the data hosted in Bahrain.

Craig said these threats "will not fundamentally reverse the ambitions of the Persian Gulf," but will "change the economics and geography of AI investment."

He said: "The Persian Gulf has traditionally positioned itself as a stable environment in an unstable region. The war has challenged this proposition."

In many ways, Iran threatens to do to the emerging digital economy of the Persian Gulf what it has already done to its maritime economy — to "turn reliability into a geopolitical bargaining chip," Craig said.