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Work on the Middle Eastern portion of the 2Africa Pearls subsea cable has been suspended after Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) invoked force majeure, saying continuing operations in the Persian Gulf is unsafe amid the widening US–Israel–Iran conflict.
According to Bloomberg , ASN informed customers the cable‑laying vessel is currently stranded in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, and deployment through the Strait of Hormuz has been paused.
The paused segment was intended to link Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Iraq by routing through the Persian Gulf, a corridor that has become increasingly exposed as Iranian forces and other actors have targeted shipping in the area.
Industry analysts have told Bloomberg that several other projects planned to transit the Gulf, including the SEA‑ME‑WE 6 consortium effort and Ooredoo’s Fibre In Gulf initiative, have similarly been put on hold.
While much of the 2Africa Pearls infrastructure had already been laid, several landing stations remained unconnected when operations stopped, delaying an expectation that the extension would enter service this year. The broader 2Africa programme , the continent‑spanning system intended to bolster capacity between Africa, Europe and Asia , completed its core loop earlier this year but continues to see staggered rollouts for regional branches.
Beyond the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea corridor has also proved fragile. Work on the 2Africa route through the Red Sea was previously paused in late 2025 amid a mix of permit hurdles and attacks on vessels by Iran‑aligned Houthi forces. The disruption also impacted the Google‑backed Blue‑Raman cable. Those incidents have underscored how geopolitical violence along key chokepoints can ripple through the subsea industry.
Consortium membership and landing partnerships underline the scale and commercial importance of the Pearls extension. Backers include China Mobile International, Meta, Bayobab, Orange, center3, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone, and WIOCC. Regional landing partners announced earlier, such as Bharti Airtel in India and local operators in the UAE and Oman, were positioned to take significant capacity on the system: Bharti Airtel’s role is expected to bring more than 100Tbps of international capacity to India.
Ultimately, the halt continues to illustrate the vulnerability of undersea infrastructure to geopolitical shocks and creates immediate operational and commercial questions for consortium members and customers awaiting connectivity. The interruption may push consortia members to reassess routing strategies, insurance arrangements, and contingency plans for alternative landings to preserve traffic resilience across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.
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