Iran-Linked Ships Circle Undersea Cables in Gulf of Oman

Four vessels linked to Iran turned their tracking transponders off and looped over undersea internet cable routes in the Gulf of Oman this week, in movements that analysts say look like preparation for a future strike on digital infrastructure.

Maritime intelligence firm Windward tracked the activity from November 4 to 6. Three sanctioned tankers and an Iranian fishing vessel went dark above cable paths, making repeated slow circuits. The pattern of looping over the same stretches of seabed at low speed is consistent with cable route mapping rather than transit.

The cables run below the Gulf's surface and form part of the backbone linking the Persian Gulf region to global internet networks. Any deliberate physical disruption would affect connectivity across much of the Middle East, with potential knock-on effects for banking, communications and commercial systems that rely on those links.

The incident fits a wider pattern of Iranian pressure on critical infrastructure in and around the Strait of Hormuz. In late October, Iran declared the Strait closed to vessels it considered non-compliant, while tankers caught fire after hitting naval mines in the same waters. Days after that declaration, a tanker near Khasab, Oman was disabled by a limpet mine, the first confirmed hit of its kind since the present round of US-Iran tensions began.

Using an Iranian fishing vessel alongside the sanctioned tankers is a tactic that makes the formation harder to flag automatically. Fishing boats draw different attention thresholds in vessel monitoring systems than listed or blacklisted commercial ships, and their slow looping behavior near a coast is less unusual on its face.

Iran had previously threatened action against regional digital infrastructure as part of its stated response to Western pressure. The cable-circling activity came shortly after those statements.

No cables have been reported cut or damaged. Cable operators and Western intelligence agencies are understood to be monitoring the vessels.