In the midst of the 12-week campaign by Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen to disrupt the critical shipping corridor of the Red Sea, a new worry is creeping in: that the Houthis may target the bevy of subsea cables that carry nearly all the data and financial communications between Europe and Asia.
In the midst of the 12-week campaign by Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen to disrupt the critical shipping corridor of the Red Sea, a new worry is creeping in: that the Houthis may target the bevy of subsea cables that carry nearly all the data and financial communications between Europe and Asia.
So far, most of the concern about the Houthi campaign has understandably focused on its disruptive impact on commercial shipping and energy flows through the key chokepoint between the Suez Canal and the Indian Ocean. But this new concern underscores the way in which subsea infrastructure—and its potential vulnerability—is becoming a critical feature in the global security seascape.
In late December, an account linked to Houthi militants posted on Telegram what appeared to be threats against the dozen-odd fiber-optic cables that squeeze through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait west of Yemen. The nebulous threats were echoed and amplified by accounts linked to other Iran-backed militants, including Hezbollah, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute.
In recent years, key infrastructure on the seafloor has become part of the gray-zone battleground, with Russian “ghost ships” spooking neighbors in the Baltic and North seas. More than a year ago, the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany was mysteriously blown up (while Nord Stream 2 was damaged), and last fall, energy and data links in the eastern Baltic were also mysteriously damaged. Similar episodes have plagued data connections in the Mediterranean.
While the vague threats to submarine cables in the Red Sea have not so far led to any incidents, the centrality of their target is clear—there are few other ways to move the massive amounts of data and........