Suddenly! The U.S. proposes a 48-hour ceasefire? Iran launches a fierce attack!

Weekend—new developments emerge from the situation in Iran!

On April 3, local time, Iran Fars News Agency, citing an insider, reported that on April 2 the U.S. proposed a 48-hour ceasefire to Iran through some friendly country, and Iran responded with a fierce attack.

On April 3, Iran announced one after another that it had shot down a U.S. Air Force fighter jet and an attack aircraft. The U.S. side confirmed that the U.S. military rescued a fighter pilot and is searching for another pilot.

On the same day, according to the latest data released by the U.S. Department of Defense, 365 U.S. personnel were injured in military operations against Iran. According to U.S. military statistics, the number of deaths is still 13.

It is worth noting that after the U.S.-Iran conflict broke out, U.S. technology companies are facing new risks to infrastructure in the Middle East. If the conflict continues for the long term or the threat cannot be eliminated, it may force all parties to reassess their plans to deploy data centers in Gulf countries.

Iran responds to the U.S. ceasefire proposal with a fierce assault

According to a report by Xinhua News Agency, on April 3 Iran Fars News Agency, citing an insider, reported that on April 2 the U.S. proposed a 48-hour ceasefire to Iran through some friendly country, and Iran responded with a fierce attack.

The insider said that against the backdrop of escalating tensions and the severe predicament the U.S. is facing due to an incorrect assessment of Iran’s military capabilities, the U.S. made this proposal. After Iran attacked a U.S. military warehouse on Bubiyan Island in the northern part of Kuwait, the U.S.’s diplomatic efforts to seek a ceasefire became increasingly urgent. The insider said that Iran responded to the U.S.’s proposal with continued fierce attacks.

According to the latest data released by the U.S. Department of Defense on April 3, 365 U.S. personnel were injured in military operations against Iran. The data shows that among these injured personnel, 247 were from the Army, 63 were from the Navy, 19 were from the Marine Corps, and 36 were from the Air Force.

According to U.S. military statistics, the number of deaths is still 13, including 6 servicemembers who died in an Iranian attack on Kuwait, 1 servicemember who died after being injured in Saudi Arabia, and 6 people who died in a U.S. tanker aircraft crash incident.

Also, according to CCTV News, in the early hours of April 4 local time, it was learned that, according to information from Israel, an industrial park in the Negev region in southern Israel “caught fire due to an explosion caused by falling ordnance.”

In addition, reports of falling ordnance have also come from places such as Petah Tikva, Giv’atayim, and Rosh Ha’ayin in central Israel. Firefighting and emergency medical departments are handling the situation on site.

Earlier, the Israeli military monitored, twice, missiles fired from Iran toward Israel, and air-defense alerts sounded in many areas of the south and central regions.

Later that day, the Israel Home Front Command notified residents in southern and central areas that they may leave protected areas.

In the evening of April 3 local time, the media office of the UAE’s Abu Dhabi confirmed that a fire broke out at a Habshan natural gas facility due to debris falling after intercepting incoming missiles. So far, it has caused 1 death and 4 injuries. It is understood that the facility has been temporarily shut down.

According to an early-morning report from Israel on April 4 local time, that day the Israeli military launched an attack on Hezbollah infrastructure in Beirut, the Lebanese capital.

U.S. tech companies face new risks in the Middle East

According to a report by CCTV News, in recent years the Middle East has attracted U.S. technology companies thanks to its abundant funding, cheap energy, flexible regulation, and geographic advantages of being close to African and European markets. Companies such as Oracle, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have poured in one after another, driving a boom in infrastructure development such as artificial-intelligence software and data centers. However, some analysts said that after the outbreak of the U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict, the situation changed.

A reporter for CNBC, Kate Rooney, said that on March 1 Iran launched a counterattack and attacked three data centers of Amazon Web Services. Two are located in the United Arab Emirates and one is located in Bahrain—this was the first time that the infrastructure of a large cloud service provider was struck militarily.

The Bahrain side said that Amazon’s data center in Bahrain was attacked again and caught fire. This marked the second time this data center has been hit since the U.S.-Israel conflict began. But the report did not specify the extent of the damage.

Because large technology companies mostly have close cooperation with the U.S. military and also have commercial ties with Israel, these companies are easy targets for attacks by Iran.

Muna Yakovian, director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that as artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into commercial and military fields, the boundaries between these areas are becoming blurred. Therefore, components of artificial-intelligence infrastructure—especially data centers—are likely to become targets of attacks.

James Henderson, CEO of the technology risk management firm Helix, believes that threats targeting technology companies like this are forming a continuing trend. “In the future, crises will likely, just like attacks on traditional strategic targets, directly target data centers and cloud platforms.”

The impact on future data center construction in the Gulf is not only the physical damage caused by the conflict. An analysis by the Luxembourg market intelligence platform “IndexBox” says that if the conflict continues for the long term or the threat cannot be eliminated, it may force all parties to reassess their plans to deploy data centers in Gulf countries.

Gene Munster, managing partner at U.S. Deepwater Asset Management, said that the conflict is not beneficial for investors. If the conflict drags on longer and energy costs rise, it will increase the investment costs of data centers, potentially slowing their construction progress. In any case, the outcome is negative.

Patrick Murphy, executive director at U.S. Hilcô Global Asset Management, said that this also makes large technology companies start to hesitate: if the situation could change instantly, would they still be able to make these long-term investments?

(Source: China Securities Journal)