Iran is preparing a new law. Google, Meta, and Microsoft will be bound by this law.
Translated from Turkish
Iran is preparing a new law. Google, Meta, and Microsoft will be bound by this law.
A news agency close to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards has published a new draft.
The draft had only one topic.
Internet cables under the Strait of Hormuz.
The plan consisted of three items.
1. Permission will be required for each cable.
2. An annual fee will be paid for each cable.
3. Repairs will only be carried out by Iranian companies.
These three items directly affect the backbone of the world's internet and the financial flows worth trillions of dollars per day.
Let me explain.
First, we need to know a basic fact.
The world's internet traffic doesn't travel through the sky—it's carried by cables stretching along the ocean floor.
There are fiber optic cables running along the bottoms of the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and the Pacific. Their total length is 1.4 million kilometers.
So, what passes through these cables?
Emails. Bank transfers. Stock exchange orders. Video conferences.
About 95-99% of the world's internet traffic passes through these cables.
What we call the cloud is actually the ocean floor.
A significant portion of these cables runs under the Strait of Hormuz.
The Strait of Hormuz is the world's most strategic waterway.
It's been known as the oil corridor for 50 years because 20% of the world's oil passes through it.
Under the same strait stretches a second corridor.
The digital corridor.
Internet cables connecting Europe to Asia.
Iran has developed a legal argument here.
Part of the strait is within Iran's territorial waters. According to international maritime law, states have certain rights over areas within their territorial waters.
Iran wants to apply this right to the submarine cables as well.
"The cables pass under my land, so I set the rules," it's saying.
No country has ever openly advocated such a thesis before.
Iran's thesis is this.
Imagine an electric line passing through your property. The company that laid the line pays you an annual passage fee. Because the line runs through your land.
Iran now wants to establish the same system for submarine cables.
Something similar happened in history.
July 26, 1956.
Egyptian leader Nasser announced the nationalization of the Suez Canal.
The Suez Canal was the world's most critical trade route at the time.
It came under the control of a single country.
Three months later, Britain, France, and Israel attacked Egypt.
The Suez Crisis became one of the biggest infrastructure conflicts in history.
Iran is making a move of the same kind today, but underwater.
So, who will pay the rent?
Google.
Meta.
Microsoft.
These three companies are the world's largest owners of submarine cables. More than half of the newly laid cables are in their hands.
Their annual infrastructure investments exceed 250 billion dollars.
Iran wants to add a new line item to the balance sheets of these three companies.
Rent to Iran.
The cost will eventually be passed on to the user. Cloud services will become more expensive. Data centers will become more expensive. AI training will become more expensive.
When a cable falls into Iran's hands, a large part of the world becomes indirectly dependent on Iran.
I need to add a note.
This plan does not comply with international maritime law.
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea guarantees the right of innocent passage. Communication infrastructure passing even through territorial waters cannot be obstructed.
The plan is not legitimate on paper.
But even if it's not legitimate, it could be effective.
Because companies that have to send ships into a war zone to repair cables will either have to get Iran's permission or wait for years.
There are only 60 cable repair ships in the world. All of them have fully booked annual schedules.
Iran gains indirect control.
History tells us this.
In the 20th century, power came from controlling the oil tap.
In the 21st century, power will come from controlling the digital tap.
Iran wants to take hold of both taps.
This is my personal analysis.
What do you think about this topic?
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posted by Satish Sharma at
08:23
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