Ali Shirazi, a member of Iran International’s editorial team, says that Hussein Shariatmadari’s threat to attack the cables and submarine fiber-optic lines in the Strait of Hormuz is something that had previously been raised by officials of the Islamic Republic, but is now being brought up again in response to economic pressures and claims that the tools for blocking the Strait of Hormuz have become ineffective.

He believes that an attack on communications and internet infrastructure could have consequences far beyond an Iran–U.S. conflict and would lead to a broad international response.