Red Sea cable cuts disrupt internet in Asia, Middle East; Houthis deny involvement as Microsoft warns of disruption

Multiple cables cut off Saudi Arabia

Undersea lines can be cut in accidents and attacks

Undersea cable cuts in the Red Sea disrupted internet access in parts of Asia and the Middle East, experts said Sunday, though it wasn’t immediately clear what caused the incident.

There has been concern about the cables being targeted in a Red Sea campaign

Undersea cables are one of the backbones of the internet, along with satellite connections and land-based cables. Typically, internet service providers have multiple access points and reroute traffic if one fails, though it can slow down access for users.

Microsoft announced via a status website that the Mideast “may experience increased latency due to undersea fiber cuts in the Red Sea.” The Redmond, Washington-based firm did not immediately elaborate, though it said that internet traffic not moving through the Middle East “is not impacted.”

NetBlocks, which monitors internet access, said “a series of subsea cable outages in the Red Sea has degraded internet connectivity in multiple countries,” which it said included India and Pakistan. It blamed “failures affecting the SMW4 and IMEWE cable systems near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.”

The South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 4 cable is run

Pakistan Telecommunications Co. Ltd., a telecommunication giant in that country, noted that the cuts had taken place in a statement on Saturday.

Saudi Arabia did not acknowledge the disruption and

In Kuwait,

In the United Arab Emirates, home to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, internet users on the country’s state-owned Du and Etisalat networks complained of slower internet speeds. The government did not acknowledge the disruption.

Subsea cables can be cut

The cuts to the lines come as Yemen’s Houthi rebels remain locked in a series of attacks targeting Israel over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. Israel has responded with airstrikes, including one that killed top leaders within the rebel movement.

In early 2024, Yemen’s internationally recognized government in exile alleged that the Houthis planned to attack undersea cables in the Red Sea. Several were cut, possibly

Moammar al-Eryani, the information minister with Yemen’s internationally recognized government that opposes the Houthis and is based in southern Yemen, issued a statement saying the cable cuts “cannot be isolated from the series of direct attacks carried out

“What is happening today in the Red Sea should serve as a wake-up call for the international community, which must take a firm stance to stop these escalating threats and protect the digital infrastructure that serves as the lifeline of the modern world,” al-Eryani said.

From November 2023 to December 2024, the Houthis targeted more than 100 ships with missiles and drones over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. In their campaign so far, the Houthis have sunk four vessels and killed at least eight mariners.

The Iranian-backed Houthis stopped their attacks during a brief ceasefire in the war. They later became the target of an intense weekslong campaign of airstrikes ordered

The Houthis’ new attacks come as a new possible ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war remains in the balance. Meanwhile, the future of talks between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran’s battered nuclear program is in question after Israel launched a 12-day war against the Islamic Republic in which the Americans bombed three Iranian atomic sites.