Iran-linked ships spotted loitering over Gulf undersea cables, intelligence firm says

Iranian-linked ships have been caught acting very strangely above the undersea cables that keep the Gulf online. Israeli maritime intelligence firm Windward tracked at least four vessels taking unusual routes near submarine cable networks in the Gulf of Oman, according to a Financial Times report. The fleet included three oil tankers already under US sanctions and one small Iranian fishing boat.

The behavior was oddly specific. Tracking records showed the fishing vessel lingering near the Europe India Gateway and Transworld cables between October 21 and 26. Windward said the same irregular navigation patterns showed up around the three tankers. The ships moved like ordinary traffic until they hit a cable corridor, then slowed, looped, turned back, loitered or switched off their transponders entirely, the company told the FT.

Windward's assessment is blunt: the pattern fits the profile of vessels mapping cable routes, or planting charges or mines on them while running dark. The ships also didn't behave like the commercial vessels parked nearby waiting for oil cargoes out of the Gulf, and their movements shifted only after they approached the cable corridors.

The timing is not subtle. Iran has spent the past month threatening to hit submarine cables and data centers in the Strait of Hormuz if the US and Israel launch another military offensive, the FT reported. Those warnings landed as the US president signaled military operations against Tehran could resume.

The stakes are enormous. Telecoms research firm TeleGeography counts six cables already running through the Strait of Hormuz, with three more under construction: Fibre in Gulf, Sea-Me-We 6 and 2Africa, the closest to completion. Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar rely entirely on cables passing through that waterway for their internet connectivity, so any damage would hit countries with no backup submarine route hard, disrupting both online access and economic activity across the region.

For now, no cable has been reported damaged. The question hanging over the Gulf is whether those slow, looping, dark-running ships were just coincidence, or a rehearsal.