WASHINGTON — Iran has “substantially increased efforts to target US personnel” in the Middle East and elsewhere, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton warned in a memo seen by BBC News.
The unclassified memo, sent Friday to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, said: “The lethal plotting efforts by the Iranians against US citizens have reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain other countries.” Clayton said he was working to downgrade as much intelligence as possible so it could be shared with State Department staff, the BBC reported.
The warning follows this week’s ordered departure of non-emergency U.S. embassy staff from Saudi Arabia amid escalating attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis. At least 21 people have been killed in Houthi attacks on Saudi airports since the start of October, according to Saudi authorities, including 13 in a single missile strike on Riyadh’s airport on Oct. 10.
Separately, Reuters, via CNA, reported that Iran has drawn up detailed plans to hit undersea internet cables in the Gulf if it is attacked again. “If Iran is attacked, there will be no more red lines … from undersea cables to military bases,” Reuters reported. A senior Revolutionary Guards official, Yadollah Javani, has publicly named seven cables running through the Strait of Hormuz.
Alan Mauldin of research firm TeleGeography told Reuters that less than 1% of global bandwidth passes through Hormuz, though damage could disrupt connectivity for Gulf states. The U.S.-Israeli air campaign against Iran that began in February led to the effective closure of the strait, and a preliminary June deal to reopen it collapsed within weeks, the BBC noted.
Sources: BBC News, CNA / Reuters
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