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Iran-Linked Ships Hover Over Subsea Cables in Gulf of Oman

Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, November 3, 2026. (Reuters)
Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, November 3, 2026. (Reuters)
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Iran-Linked Ships Hover Over Subsea Cables in Gulf of Oman

Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, November 3, 2026. (Reuters)
Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, November 3, 2026. (Reuters)

Ships linked to Iran have been hovering over subsea telecoms cables in the Middle East after Tehran threatened to attack cables and data centers if the US and Israel launch a fresh bombing campaign, reported the Financial Times on Friday.

At least four vessels tracked by the maritime analytics company Windward have been observed taking unusual routes and loitering over subsea cables traversing the Gulf of Oman in the days after Iran warned of disruption to digital infrastructure if the US escalated the conflict.

Three were tankers subject to US sanctions, while the fourth was a small Iranian fishing craft that loitered over the Europe India Gateway and Transworld cables between October 21 and 26, according to Windward data.

According to data from TeleGeography, six cables run through the Strait of Hormuz, while three more — Fiber in Gulf, Sea-Me-We 6 and 2Africa — are under construction. 2Africa is the closest to completion.

Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar are wholly dependent on cables running under the strait for their internet connectivity.

Tehran has been vocal in its threats against cables and data centers running through the Strait of Hormuz over the past month, in response to suggestions from US President Donald Trump and other senior US figures in the run-up to this week’s midterm elections that they would launch further attacks on Iran.

Hossein Mohebbi, spokesperson for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, said on October 19: “Seven major undersea internet cables run through the Strait of Hormuz, carrying all commercial and internet data. We just want [the US] to realize that new targets and new weapons shall be unveiled.”

That echoed comments by Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, a week earlier threatening that “data centers and artificial intelligence facilities will be destroyed”.

Yadollah Javani, deputy commander of the IRGC for political affairs, said later in October that assets “including internet cables” would be damaged in retaliation for attacks on Iran’s own infrastructure.

Masha Kotkin, a former US state department official and fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank, said AI, cloud computing, data centers and other digital activities in the Gulf depended on subsea fiberoptic cables.

Any damage would result in “slower internet [and] financial transactions” and would “disrupt communications networks, ecommerce and cloud computing”, Kotkin said.

Connectivity is also a significant part of the Gulf countries’ efforts to diversify away from hydrocarbons and become a hub for digital businesses, Kotkin noted.

The US has continued to move military assets into the region. An aircraft carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, was seen on satellite images in the South China Sea travelling towards Singapore early on Wednesday, potentially adding to two carriers already in the Middle East region.

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World

Israel President Taps Eisenkot to Form New Government

TOPSHOT - Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot (R) arrives to address his supporters at the election night rally after the first exit polls were announced, in Tel Aviv on early October 28, 2026, during Israel's legislative elections. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot (R) arrives to address his supporters at the election night rally after the first exit polls were announced, in Tel Aviv on early October 28, 2026, during Israel's legislative elections. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)
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Israel President Taps Eisenkot to Form New Government

TOPSHOT - Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot (R) arrives to address his supporters at the election night rally after the first exit polls were announced, in Tel Aviv on early October 28, 2026, during Israel's legislative elections. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot (R) arrives to address his supporters at the election night rally after the first exit polls were announced, in Tel Aviv on early October 28, 2026, during Israel's legislative elections. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)

Israel's president announced on Saturday he would task Gadi Eisenkot with forming the next government following last week's election, in what Netanyahu's rivals see as a first step to remove the country's longest-serving prime minister.

The opposition bloc led by Eisenkot, a former military chief and political newcomer who has tried to appeal to secular and liberal Israelis, has opened the door to a once improbable alliance with ultra-Orthodox Jews, which could give it the numbers to form a coalition, AFP said.

President Isaac Herzog said that after consultations with all parties during the week, he would grant Eisenkot the first chance to form a government after the October 27 election, in which neither side secured a majority in a country deeply polarized by Netanyahu's hard-right rule and worn down by three years of war.

The formal appointment would take place in an official ceremony on Sunday at the president's residence in Jerusalem, Herzog's office said.

Eisenkot, who later pledged to "do everything" to form a new government, was recommended by parties representing 67 lawmakers as opposed to 46 for Netanyahu's bloc.

But the recommendations for Eisenkot included members of Israel's Arab minority -- whose seat haul soared in the election on the back of anger against Netanyahu -- and right-leaning segments of the opposition that are against relying on Arab votes.

- Unity government -

Herzog, originally from Israel's now defunct left-wing Labor Party but who has a non-partisan role and has forged a working relationship with Netanyahu, has signaled that he would like to explore a national unity government that would seek to bring together Jewish Israelis from across the political spectrum.

Pressure for a unity government could build if Netanyahu follows through on threats to resume war on Iran, although US President Donald Trump has not given the green light.

Netanyahu, who has led Israel on and off for nearly two decades and guided its sharply rightward turn in recent years, faces corruption charges and potentially jail if he leaves office. He also faces an arrest warrant over the Gaza war from the International Criminal Court, whose authority he rejects.

Netanyahu has already called for a unity government but the opposition has stood firm on removing him first.

He has attacked opposition leaders for even considering working with Israeli Arabs, descendants of Palestinians who stayed after the creation of Israel in 1948.

The incumbent premier said on Saturday that a potential coalition between opposition parties and Arab lists, which he called Islamists, would "dismantle the State of Israel from within" and urged the formation of a unity government comprising "all the Zionist parties that want to safeguard our state."

In response, Eisenkot's Yashar party urged Netanyahu's allies and members of his Likud party to form a unity government led by Eisenkot and to "publicly announce the dissolution of their alliance with the extremists".

"Now is the time to form a national emergency government," Eisenkot wrote on X in his first reaction to the announcement of his designation. "I will do everything to ensure we are worthy."

Opposition bloc member Avigdor Liberman, a former Netanyahu aide turned fierce critic who nonetheless shares his hawkish views on the Palestinians, has made clear that he will not sit with Eisenkot if he relies on Israeli-Arab votes.

But on Friday, Liberman -- a staunch secularist whose support base initially was Russian-speaking immigrants -- made a U-turn on another group he had shunned and said he was open to discussions on a law that would enshrine an exemption for ultra-Orthodox Jews from mandatory military service.

Liberman and another opposition leader, Naftali Bennett, had made closing the exemption a core campaign promise and had viscerally criticized ultra-Orthodox Jews as burdens on the state, responding to wide resentment by other Israelis at a time when reservists are serving multiple tours in Gaza and Lebanon.

Eisenkot has proposed requiring national service for all Israelis but allowing citizens to choose a civilian option rather than the military, opening the door to integrating the ultra-Orthodox.

On Friday, Eisenkot said it was urgent to replace Netanyahu, calling him a threat to the "very existence of Israeli democracy".

Following his appointment, Eisenkot will have 28 days to come up with the 61 votes needed for a government. If he comes up short, Herzog can provide a 14-day extension before he has to offer the mandate to someone else.

If neither side succeeds, Israel will head to fresh elections. The country held five elections between 2019 and 2022 due to repeated deadlocks.

World

Iran-Linked Ships Hover Over Subsea Cables in Gulf of Oman

Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, November 3, 2026. (Reuters)
Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, November 3, 2026. (Reuters)
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Iran-Linked Ships Hover Over Subsea Cables in Gulf of Oman

Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, November 3, 2026. (Reuters)
Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, November 3, 2026. (Reuters)

Ships linked to Iran have been hovering over subsea telecoms cables in the Middle East after Tehran threatened to attack cables and data centers if the US and Israel launch a fresh bombing campaign, reported the Financial Times on Friday.

At least four vessels tracked by the maritime analytics company Windward have been observed taking unusual routes and loitering over subsea cables traversing the Gulf of Oman in the days after Iran warned of disruption to digital infrastructure if the US escalated the conflict.

Three were tankers subject to US sanctions, while the fourth was a small Iranian fishing craft that loitered over the Europe India Gateway and Transworld cables between October 21 and 26, according to Windward data.

According to data from TeleGeography, six cables run through the Strait of Hormuz, while three more — Fiber in Gulf, Sea-Me-We 6 and 2Africa — are under construction. 2Africa is the closest to completion.

Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar are wholly dependent on cables running under the strait for their internet connectivity.

Tehran has been vocal in its threats against cables and data centers running through the Strait of Hormuz over the past month, in response to suggestions from US President Donald Trump and other senior US figures in the run-up to this week’s midterm elections that they would launch further attacks on Iran.

Hossein Mohebbi, spokesperson for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, said on October 19: “Seven major undersea internet cables run through the Strait of Hormuz, carrying all commercial and internet data. We just want [the US] to realize that new targets and new weapons shall be unveiled.”

That echoed comments by Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, a week earlier threatening that “data centers and artificial intelligence facilities will be destroyed”.

Yadollah Javani, deputy commander of the IRGC for political affairs, said later in October that assets “including internet cables” would be damaged in retaliation for attacks on Iran’s own infrastructure.

Masha Kotkin, a former US state department official and fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank, said AI, cloud computing, data centers and other digital activities in the Gulf depended on subsea fiberoptic cables.

Any damage would result in “slower internet [and] financial transactions” and would “disrupt communications networks, ecommerce and cloud computing”, Kotkin said.

Connectivity is also a significant part of the Gulf countries’ efforts to diversify away from hydrocarbons and become a hub for digital businesses, Kotkin noted.

The US has continued to move military assets into the region. An aircraft carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, was seen on satellite images in the South China Sea travelling towards Singapore early on Wednesday, potentially adding to two carriers already in the Middle East region.

World

Iran Says Two Tankers Caught Fire in Hormuz after Hitting Mines

Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, November 3, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, November 3, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
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Iran Says Two Tankers Caught Fire in Hormuz after Hitting Mines

Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, November 3, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, November 3, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer

Two oil tankers caught fire in the Strait of Hormuz after hitting mines, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday, according to state news agency IRNA.

Since the outbreak of the Iran war in late February, Tehran has severely restricted traffic through the strategic waterway, insisting vessels use routes authorized by the Iranian republic.

The United States has in response imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports and helped tankers travel the strait, which normally carries about one-fifth of global oil consumption.

"Two oil tankers violating regulations -- one in the eastern part of the Strait of Hormuz and the other within the strait -- caught fire and are currently engulfed in intense flames after striking naval mines while attempting to cross through unauthorized routes," the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the ideological arm of Iran's military, said in a statement.

"The two tankers had reportedly committed multiple violations, including switching off their navigation and positioning systems, as they attempted to transit through an unauthorized route," the statement added.

The Guards did not specify the name or nationality of the tankers.

Tehran has made multiple announcements in recent weeks saying that ships have caught fire in the Hormuz strait.

US Central Command has recently said that all mines have been cleared from the waterway.

The IRNA separately reported late on Saturday that sounds of explosions were heard in parts of the country.

"Sounds resembling explosions were heard in Qeshm, Sirik, Jask, and Bandar Abbas. The cause of the sounds remains unknown," the news agency wrote on Telegram.

Officials confirmed an "impact" in the port city of Jask, the IRNA said.

US President Donald Trump previously talked up the possibility of resuming heavy strikes on Iran but has since walked back from the idea.

Nevertheless, the US military has conducted occasional limited strikes.