A spokesman for Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Monday that seven major internet cables run beneath the Strait of Hormuz and that new targets and weapons would be unveiled.
Brigadier General Hossein Mohebi, spokesman for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), spoke on 20 October, according to several outlets, including IBTimes UK.
He was speaking at a ceremony at Tehran's Sacred Defense Museum, according to Iranian state broadcaster IRIB, as relayed by the News Beep aggregator. The original IRIB text could not be obtained.
IRIB reported that Brigadier General Mohebi said: "Seven major internet cables run beneath the Strait of Hormuz." He added that the world should know new targets and new weapons would be unveiled, according to the same report.
He also said Iran would drive the remnants of US power out of the region, according to the report.
Reports say the spokesman did not explicitly name the cables as targets. No attack on, or damage to, any cable has been confirmed, according to UrduPoint, which said it could not obtain the full official statement or a recording.
Wording of the remarks differs between outlets. Israel National News quoted him as saying the enemy should know that Iran has new targets. Hespress described the remarks as reports circulated by media.
IBTimes UK reported that Brigadier General Mohebi also posted an apparently AI-generated missile image on X, captioned "The world will see what will happen". He did not say whether the image was linked to the cables.
No response from the United States, Gulf states or cable operators had been reported. The brief's sources did not include any Iranian government comment beyond the remarks attributed to the spokesman.
The spokesman's reported claim that all internet and commercial traffic passes through these cables is disputed. Analysts and the research firm TeleGeography say cables in the Strait of Hormuz carry under 1% of global international bandwidth, according to IBTimes UK.
Any disruption would be mainly regional, according to the analysts, although some Gulf states have few alternative routes.
About 12 October, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said undersea cables, data centres and AI facilities linked to the US could be targeted if war resumed. News Beep said he told Press TV; IBTimes UK and UrduPoint also reported his remarks.
IBTimes UK quoted him as saying that if war broke out again, the many cables, data centres and AI facilities in the region, worth $2 trillion, would come within Iran's range. News Beep, citing Press TV, quoted him as saying Iran had not yet included these assets among its targets.
The two accounts of Mr Rezaei's remarks differ, and the brief did not resolve which wording is accurate.
Background: according to News Beep, the US and Israel launched a war on Iran on 28 February 2026. Tehran responded with missile and drone attacks across the region and effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz. Washington later imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports.
The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding in June on freedom of navigation in the strait, according to News Beep. Implementation stalled over security disagreements.
In May, CNN reported that Iranian lawmakers had discussed charging technology firms such as Google, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon for cable passage. Under the plan, repair rights would go to Iranian firms.
Iranian military spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaghari said on X at the time that fees would be imposed on internet cables, according to CNN. IRGC-linked media vaguely suggested traffic could be disrupted if firms did not pay.
TeleGeography's Alan Mauldin told CNN that two cables, Falcon and Gulf Bridge International, run through Iranian territorial waters.
In 2024, three cables were cut when a ship hit by Yemen's Houthis sank and dragged its anchor, according to CNN. The incident disrupted nearly 25% of regional internet traffic, according to HGC Global Communications.
Brigadier General Mohebi became IRGC spokesman earlier in 2026, replacing Ali-Mohammad Naeini, according to IBTimes UK. Mr Rezaei is a former IRGC commander.
No date has been reported for the unveiling of the new targets and weapons, or for any next step on the stalled June memorandum.
