Syria’s state-owned telecom operator is continuing to repair an international subsea cable between Tartous and Alexandria in Egypt after what it called an “act of sabotage.”

Syrian Telecom said on Tuesday 16 June that it is currently providing Internet via the Ugarit cable system, a 239 km undersea cable linking Cyprus and Syria, and an additional route through Turkey, which was recently upgraded to 1Tbps.

“This has contributed to maintaining relative service stability and continuing to meet subscribers’ needs despite the impact on one of the main international routes,” said the operator in a Facebook post.

Syrian Telecom announced on Monday (15 June) that the subsea cable carrying Internet traffic between the country and Alexandria was damaged off the coast of Tartous in what it called a “systematic sabotage campaign” targeting Syria’s telecoms infrastructure.

“This resulted in a significant portion of international capacity being taken out of service, impacting Internet services for a wide segment of subscribers across various Syrian governorates,” said Syria Telecom.

A telecoms source in Cairo quoted by Asharq News said that there was “no negative impact on Internet and mobile services in Egypt as a result of the submarine cable break."

The Aletar submarine cable system runs 787km under the Mediterranean Sea connecting Tartous in Syria to Alexandria in Egypt. Launched in 1997, it consists of two fiber pairs with eight optical amplifiers with a capacity of 5Gbps.

Aletar is owned and managed by a consortium made up of Telecom Egypt, Syrian Telecom and the Lebanese Ministry of Telecommunications.

Syrian Telecom said that it took steps to minimize the impact on services “immediately after the incident” and is also working to bring in “specialized foreign technical expertise” to repair the cable.

“Due to the precise and complex technical nature of submarine cable repair work and the specialized equipment and technologies required, completing the maintenance work and fully restoring service may take some time,” said Syria Telecom.

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