Iran Threatens Gulf Data Centers: How Exposed Is the Region's Internet?

Iran Warns Cables and Data Centers in the Region May Be Attacked as Houthi Allies Disrupt Internet

Iran's security chief Mohsen Rezaei has warned that cables, data centers and artificial intelligence (AI) facilities across the region may be attacked in the event of a renewed war with America.

The warning comes as Iran-backed Houthis' seizure of Yemeni territory along the Red Sea coastline last month has raised concerns about the safety of internet cables linking Europe and Asia. Fierce fighting between Yemen's internationally recognized government and the Houthis is ongoing in several locations, including Bab al-Mandab, where nearly a fifth of global internet traffic passes through.

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End of list US data centers and business interests in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates were hit during the US-Israel war against Iran. Tehran said these attacks were in response to US attacks on Iranian civilian facilities.

Active hostilities have largely ended since a June memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States, but attacks on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz continue.

So how exposed is the region's internet? Here's what you need to know:

Why are data centers and internet cables vulnerable?

Because a lot of data passes through a few narrow paths.

According to estimates by research firm TeleGeography, more than 90 percent of the data capacity between Europe and Asia passes through cables under the Red Sea.

They enter the sea through Bab al-Mandab, a strait about 26 kilometers (16 mi) wide at its narrowest, one of the busiest sea routes connecting Europe to Asia.

Cables can be severed by anchoring or sabotage, and repairs in a combat zone require a permit and safety assurance.

Data centers that run banking applications and cloud services are big, fixed targets.

Andreas Craig, a senior lecturer in security studies at King's College London, told Al Jazeera: "An attack does not necessarily need to destroy the servers themselves to disable the entire facility.

Data centers depend on uninterrupted power, cooling and telecommunications, he said, while undersea cables are "difficult to continuously protect and a disruption can affect several countries at once".

Has Iran threatened to attack data and cable centers?

Yes, over and over since the war started in February.

On March 11, Ambassador Arjan announced that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had published a list of "new Iranian targets," including cloud infrastructure owned by Google, Microsoft, and Oracle in Israel and some Persian Gulf countries.

In the same month, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps mentioned in a telegram post 17 American companies, including Google, Meta and Apple, as well as the UAE artificial intelligence company G42 as potential targets.

Craig said he would take Rezaee's threat seriously, but distinguished between Iran's ability to cause significant disruption and its ability to "systematically destroy the Persian Gulf's digital infrastructure."

"What makes Mohsen Rezaei's warning particularly important is that he is not simply threatening a set of targets," he said. He is identifying a new category of strategic infrastructure that directly connects the Gulf's economic diversity to America's technological prowess.

He described the warning as "basically about deterrence" that was "aimed at Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and Doha as much as Washington", giving Gulf states a reason to avoid another US invasion.

Has the technology infrastructure and cables been attacked before?

In March, Amazon Web Services (AWS) said two of its facilities in the UAE were "directly hit by drones", while an attack near one in Bahrain "caused a physical impact on our infrastructure".

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank said its app was unavailable due to regional IT disruption, although it did not directly link this to AWS.

In September, AWS announced that it could not restore several sites in Bahrain and one site in the UAE.

According to an industry consensus reported by Data Center Dynamics, three cables were damaged in February 2024, most likely by the dead anchor of the Rubimar, a cargo ship disabled by a Houthi missile, and repairs took months.

In September 2025, two cables were cut near Jeddah, reducing Internet access throughout the Middle East and South Asia. No reason has been confirmed.

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

He said: "Persian Gulf systems can intercept most incoming threats, but even a small number of successful attacks can have disproportionate economic consequences.

Have the Houthis attacked the cables under the sea?

Not directly, as far as is known, and the group has denied causing 2024 damage.

But in mid-September, the Houthis captured the port of Moka and the surrounding areas of Bab al-Mandab.

On September 11, they reached Mayon Island, which divides the strait into two parts.

On October 5, Yemen's internationally recognized government said it had recaptured Moka and positions near the strait. The Houthis denied it.

Some, however, cost more and are still under construction.

Iraq signed a contract with Qatar's Ooredoo on September 10 to transfer data from the Persian Gulf to Europe across its territory, the Ministry of Communications said in a statement.

Iraqi Minister Mustafa Jabar Sanad told Ambassador Arjan that an underground cable runs from Alfaw to Rabia near the Turkish border.