As the war in the Gulf expands so does the type of target. In the initial barrages Iranians targeted key military assets like the four THAAD air defence missile radar stations and fighters parked on the tarmac of US bases.
However, as the war moves into its third week, now the IRGC have declared that US commercial assets in the Gulf have become “legitimate targets.”
Iran considers all the US banks operating in the region as fair game if Washington attacks an Iranian bank again.
The IRGC warned all American companies operating in the Middle East to evacuate facilities in the region.
For example, Bloomberg, which moved its Moscow staff members to Dubai following the Ukrainian invasion, has offered to help staff relocate again if they want to.
In a statement circulated by Iranian media, the IRGC said: “We warn the American regime to evacuate all American industries in the region. We ask people living near industrial factories in which Americans hold shares to leave those areas so they are not harmed.”
The warning was accompanied by a graphic shared by the IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency listing US industrial, technology, energy and financial companies with offices in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, including detailed office locations in Amman, Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
The authenticity of list has been questioned, and it is claimed that it is not an official IRGC list but is the product of an Iranian Telegram channel that has distributed it.
The list was purportedly created by the owner of the channel before being picked by Fars. It is not clear if Fars were deliberately misreporting the origin of the list or simply assumed it originated with the IRGC.
The title of the list is “American industrial, energy and financial companies in the region,” but at least two of the companies on the list, NSO and Trafigura, are not US companies but register in Israel and Switzerland respectively.
Here is the original Telegram post on a channel with only 73 subscribers. The content does not follow established IRGC communication channels, nor does it visually resemble official statements, a bne IntelliNews source close the story said.
Jordan and the UAE host large numbers of Western companies and serve as regional hubs for finance, technology and defence contracting.
Both countries also maintain close security and economic ties with the United States and host American military facilities.
■ Companies and locations listed by the IRGC:
Lockheed Martin — Amman Military Liaison Office; Abu Dhabi Global Market
Boeing — Amman Diplomatic Area; Dubai South Aviation District
Microsoft — Amman Business Park; Dubai Internet City
Oracle — Abdali Financial District, Amman
ExxonMobil — Amman Energy Office
Citigroup — Abdali Financial District, Amman
Amazon Web Services — Abdali Boulevard, Amman
NSO Group — Abu Dhabi
KKR — Gate Village 4, DIFC, Dubai
Boston Consulting Group — Gate Village, DIFC, Dubai
Bain & Company — ICD Brookfield Place, Dubai
Trafigura — Uptown Tower, First Al Khail St, Dubai
Datacentres targeted
Separate reports circulating online have suggested that US-owned data centres in the Gulf have been targeted, with some companies reviewing security arrangements and contingency plans for their regional facilities.
Unconfirmed reports say several major cloud providers — including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud — have begun reducing staff presence or preparing emergency shutdown procedures at some sites in the region. So far, however, there is no verified reporting that any US-operated data centres in the Gulf have been physically struck and major technology companies have not announced damage to their infrastructure in the region.
Data centres in the Gulf have become strategically important in recent years as the region has developed into a major hub for global cloud computing and digital infrastructure. An attack on datacentres would also cripple government functions and commerce in the region which has rapidly gone online.
As the war in the Gulf expands so does the type of target. In the initial barrages Iranians targeted key military assets like the four THAAD air defence missile radar stations and fighters parked on the tarmac of US bases. However, as the war moves into its third week, now the IRGC have declared that US commercial assets in the Gulf have become “legitimate targets.”
Iran considers all the US banks operating in the region as fair game if Washington attacks an Iranian bank again. The IRGC warned all American companies operating in the Middle East to evacuate facilities in the region. For example, Bloomberg, which moved its Moscow staff to Dubai following the Ukrainian invasion, has offered to help staff relocate again if they want to.
In a statement circulated by Iranian media, the IRGC said: “We warn the American regime to evacuate all American industries in the region. We ask people living near industrial factories in which Americans hold shares to leave those areas so they are not harmed.”
The warning was accompanied by a graphic shared by the IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency listing US industrial, technology, energy and financial companies with offices in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, including detailed office locations in Amman, Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Jordan and the UAE host large numbers of Western companies and serve as regional hubs for finance, technology and defence contracting. Both countries also maintain close security and economic ties with the United States and host American military facilities.
Companies and locations listed by the IRGC:
Lockheed Martin — Amman Military Liaison Office; Abu Dhabi Global Market
Boeing — Amman Diplomatic Area; Dubai South Aviation District
Microsoft — Amman Business Park; Dubai Internet City
Oracle — Abdali Financial District, Amman
ExxonMobil — Amman Energy Office
Citigroup — Abdali Financial District, Amman
Amazon Web Services — Abdali Boulevard, Amman
NSO Group — Abu Dhabi
KKR — Gate Village 4, DIFC, Dubai
Boston Consulting Group — Gate Village, DIFC, Dubai
Bain & Company — ICD Brookfield Place, Dubai
Trafigura — Uptown Tower, First Al Khail St, Dubai
■ Datacentres targeted
Separate reports circulating online have suggested that US-owned data centres in the Gulf have been targeted, with some companies reviewing security arrangements and contingency plans for their regional facilities.
Unconfirmed reports say several major cloud providers — including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud — have begun reducing staff presence or preparing emergency shutdown procedures at some sites in the region. So far, however, there is no verified reporting that any US-operated data centres in the Gulf have been physically struck and major technology companies have not announced damage to their infrastructure in the region.
Data centres in the Gulf have become strategically important in recent years as the region has developed into a major hub for global cloud computing and digital infrastructure. An attack on datacentres would also cripple government functions and commerce in the region which has rapidly gone online.
Credit: https://www.intellinews.com/iran-targets-us-businesses-in-the-gulf-431704/?source=israel
