Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Iran will impose fees on subsea internet cables in Strait of Hormuz

cnn.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 146 posts

Re: Iran will impose fees on subsea internet cables in Strait of Hormuz

#121

Post by 627467 »

jauntywundrkind wrote: post #92
anonymousiam wrote: post #78

It's pretty unlikely that this will happen. The government of Iran has made a lot of unreasonable demands, but has very little power to back them up.

The past couple years have really brought into focus to me the asymmetry, if how easy and cheap destruction and ruining things is, and how much harder maintaining and defending and protecting can be. It seems like a wild claim to me to make that no, Iran can't make some small/medium underwater drones to go harass and destroy underwater cables. Protecting miles of lines splayed out across a big hard to get to area see…

Iranian regime (and adversaries, if they were frank) would argue they have been effective at maintaining/defending/protecting. Just look at current state of things

Re: Iran will impose fees on subsea internet cables in Strait of Hormuz

#122

Post by DoctorOetker »

nullocator wrote: post #111
DoctorOetker wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What prevents a consortium of network operators using similar hostage politics on Iran? What prevents them from pooling together the funds for 2 decades of relentless cyberattacks on Iran, unless twice the same fee is payed in reverse to compensate for just the threat ? (currently unaffected network operators have an incentive to chip in, lest political factions local to or neighboring their cables start imitating Ir…

> What prevents them from pooling together the funds for 2 decades of relentless cyberattacks on Iran, unless twice the same fee is payed in reverse to compensate for just the threat? I thought it was clear to everyone that this is _exactly_ what the U.S. and Israel have been doing to Iran for literally 20+ years [0] [1]. In addition to economic warfare, other types of espionage, and acts of terrorism - e.g. blowing…

> I thought it was clear to everyone that this is _exactly_ what the U.S. and Israel have been doing to Iran for literally 20+ years [0] [1].

You changed my proposition to a different one by equating

US & Israeli cyber warfare, with

US & Israeli & worldwide telecom sector cyber warfare.

I ask why risk that step? worldwide telecom sector is highly networked (by profession obviously) and is probably already picking up phones and coordinating a common response, together they stand, divided they fall, none of them look forward to potential normalization of nation states charging fees unilaterally.

Its an error to confuse big problems with even bigger ones than they already face.

Telecom sector might collectively demand public payment of twice the threatened fee (however small the actual demanded fee is) plus a public statement by Iran that they publically repeal the threat just to make clear this type of precedent won't be tolerated.

Re: Iran will impose fees on subsea internet cables in Strait of Hormuz

#123

Post by amanaplanacanal »

Ajedi32 wrote: post #114
amanaplanacanal wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As they say, all's fair in love and war. Trump was certainly warned that this would be Iran's response, and started bombing anyway. Trying to absolve the US administration of this is just propaganda.

Trying to absolve the US administration of Iran's actions? Again, my whole point here is that the US is not the one blocking the strait. The US is not responsible for the actions of an enemy nation, predictable or not.

Ahem: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/12/trump-announces-str...

Re: Iran will impose fees on subsea internet cables in Strait of Hormuz

#124

Post by rrhjm53270 »

DoctorOetker wrote: post #95
nazgulsenpai wrote: post #60

This is just so incredibly embarrassing. We're now negotiating to end a war with a country we have claimed to have defeated like 500 times now, over terms that will not even just return the region to the pre-war status quo, but (most likely) giving them more power than they had when the first bombs were dropped. Not to mention shattering the illusion that the US can somehow protect the gulf states, along with most of…

> (I say this with no sympathy to the Iranian government, just looking at reality.) If we look at reality we see China is very active in Africa, and so also has undersea network cables (PEACE & 2Africa). If China allows this precedent to occur, they encourage any African nation nearby such cables to pull the same tricks on them. Hence a rational player in the shoes of China wouldn't allow this to happen. China should…

Putin and Trump have already made the world chaotic enough; don't let Xi get involved too.

Re: Iran will impose fees on subsea internet cables in Strait of Hormuz

#125

Post by dingaling »

toast0 wrote: post #101
Ajedi32 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The cables cross the territory of the sovereign Iranian state The strait is not and has never been Iran's sovereign territory. Or should the UAE and Oman start trying to charge fees to ships trying to cross the strait too?

> The strait is not and has never been Iran's sovereign territory. About half of it is, yes? Wikipedia has a nice map [1] which shows the agreed-upon maritime boundaries and there's also some disputed islands where there's no agreed up on boundaries listed. Wikipedia isn't absolutely correct, but where a body of water separates two sovereign states, the territorial waters tend to meet around the middle, with specific…

Having failed to ratify UNCLOS, Iran is entitled to claim only 3nm of territorial water.

That's international law, as it stands.

Iran passed its own law in 2003 claiming 12nm. They can only assert that claim through violence.

Re: Iran will impose fees on subsea internet cables in Strait of Hormuz

#126

Post by spwa4 »

627467 wrote: post #121
jauntywundrkind wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The past couple years have really brought into focus to me the asymmetry, if how easy and cheap destruction and ruining things is, and how much harder maintaining and defending and protecting can be. It seems like a wild claim to me to make that no, Iran can't make some small/medium underwater drones to go harass and destroy underwater cables. Protecting miles of lines splayed out across a big hard to get to area see…

Iranian regime (and adversaries, if they were frank) would argue they have been effective at maintaining/defending/protecting. Just look at current state of things

Let's see.

Iran's exports down 90% (you want to laugh? Ukraine claims half of what remains is Iran selling oil to Russia to export to Europe, especially to Spain)

Inflation somewhere between 60% and 140% (the higher number is for food).

Population complaining about massive layoffs everywhere.

There is a domestic oil shortage now in Iran.

Iran was in a continuous recession for over a decade, economic activity reducing 10% per year for a decade BEFORE the war started.

Obviously, they cannot last very long like this.

Re: Iran will impose fees on subsea internet cables in Strait of Hormuz

#127

Post by toast0 »

dingaling wrote: post #125
toast0 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The strait is not and has never been Iran's sovereign territory. About half of it is, yes? Wikipedia has a nice map [1] which shows the agreed-upon maritime boundaries and there's also some disputed islands where there's no agreed up on boundaries listed. Wikipedia isn't absolutely correct, but where a body of water separates two sovereign states, the territorial waters tend to meet around the middle, with specific…

Having failed to ratify UNCLOS, Iran is entitled to claim only 3nm of territorial water. That's international law, as it stands. Iran passed its own law in 2003 claiming 12nm. They can only assert that claim through violence.

Pretty much everyone agrees that 12 nautical miles is the edge of territorial waters; whether they're bound by the UNCLOS or not.

The UNCLOS Part II Section 2 Article 3 [1] states:

> Every State has the right to establish the breadth of its territorial sea up to a limit not exceeding 12 nautical miles, measured from baselines determined in accordance with this Convention.

It does not restrict this to member states or signatory states or etc. I don't know that the UNCLOS is binding on member states while operating in the territorial waters of non-member states, but I don't think there's a compelling reason to think territorial waters of non-members are limited to 3 nautical meters, given the consensus is territorial waters are 12 nautical meters.

> Iran passed its own law in 2003 claiming 12nm. They can only assert that claim through violence.

As a member state of the UN, they can assert a claim about territorial waters against another state at the International Court of Justice. It would seem to be a question of international law. If they were a member state of the UNCLOS, there are additional dispute resolution mechanisms available. Of course, violence is always an option for dispute resolution.

[1] https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/United_Nations_Convention_on_...

Re: Iran will impose fees on subsea internet cables in Strait of Hormuz

#128

Post by maleldil »

bluGill wrote: post #100
amanaplanacanal wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US oil companies gain, you mean.

Most are public so my 401k gains. Oil companies will expand in this scenario and those new employees pay taxes, both which benefit everyone in some way. I drive an EV so I gain. Though most lose more than they gain, this isn't a complete loss for anyone.

Why would an increase in oil prices translate to new jobs? The price increase has no relation to value added, only to global scarcity, so there's no need for new jobs.

Re: Iran will impose fees on subsea internet cables in Strait of Hormuz

#129

Post by maleldil »

Ajedi32 wrote: post #51
crikeykangaroo wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol, the USA is the one who creates havoc and started this mess in the first place. What international order?!

Iran is the one blocking the strait, not the US.

What is this argument? Iran only started blocking after they were attacked by the US. They didn't wake up one day and decided to block the strait. If something happened due to your unprovoked action, it's your fault.

Re: Iran will impose fees on subsea internet cables in Strait of Hormuz

#130

Post by joe_mamba »

SauciestGNU wrote: post #105
joe_mamba wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Nero also knew that he must stand up to politicized Christianity.

Except Trump is controlled by Israel not Christianity, so another point where he's a shittier ruler than Nero.
Post reply on HN