Amazon (AMZN) Stock: AWS Cannot Restore Bahrain and UAE Cloud Facilities After Iran War Damage

TLDR

• AWS cannot restore its Bahrain cloud facility or one UAE data zone after damage from Iranian missile and drone strikes in March 2026.
• The Bahrain damage spanned multiple availability zones and “exceeded what our regional and multi-AZ services are designed to withstand,” AWS said.
• Most affected customers have migrated workloads to other regions using backups.
• AWS will provide a UAE restoration update in the coming months, with a Bahrain update expected in early 2027.
• AWS said it has “exhausted every option” for restoring data that was not migrated before the Bahrain region went offline.

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AWS has confirmed it cannot restore access to its cloud facility in Bahrain or one of three data-hosting zones in the UAE, more than six months after Iranian drone and missile strikes damaged the infrastructure.

🇺🇸🇮🇷🇧🇭 Amazon just admitted it cannot restore its Gulf cloud regions after the Iran war…

AWS confirmed that damage in Bahrain hit multiple availability zones and exceeded what the system was designed to survive.

One data zone in the UAE also remains offline.

Most customers… pic.twitter.com/g71V9Ih5Ja

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) September 15, 2026

The disruptions began in March 2026 following U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran. Tehran responded with missile and drone strikes on Israel and Gulf states hosting U.S. military bases. Two AWS facilities in the UAE were directly struck. A drone strike near its Bahrain facility caused physical damage to infrastructure.

Amazon (AMZN) stock has faced scrutiny as the damage raises questions about the durability of its cloud infrastructure in the region.

Amazon.com, Inc., AMZN

AWS said the Bahrain damage was severe enough to take down multiple availability zones, the clusters of data centers that are designed to provide redundancy. The company said this level of damage “exceeded what our regional and multi-AZ services are designed to withstand.”

After the first Bahrain availability zone was hit in March, AWS advised customers to move their workloads elsewhere. Most did so before a second availability zone was disrupted in April, which made the entire Bahrain region unavailable.

AWS stated it has now “assessed all affected infrastructure and exhausted every option” for restoring data and resources that were not migrated in time.

UAE Restoration Still in Progress

In the UAE, the situation is slightly less severe. AWS said it cannot restore access to one specific zone, known as mec1-az2, but is continuing to work on recovery across the wider UAE region and the other two affected zones.

The company said it will provide an update on UAE service restoration in the coming months. For Bahrain, customers will have to wait until early 2027 for a further update.

AWS said it has notified relevant authorities in both countries and continues to work with them.

Customers Moved, but Not All Data Made It

For customers who did not migrate their data before Bahrain went fully offline, the news is not good. AWS confirmed it has run out of options to recover that data.

The company said it has been helping affected customers re-establish operations using backups where available, or by implementing alternative solutions to replace inaccessible data.

AWS said it “remains committed to supporting customers” in both Bahrain and the UAE over the long term.

The attacks have prompted broader changes in how cloud infrastructure is planned across the Gulf. The UAE is now revising plans for a major AI data center project, including looking at dispersing facilities and building underground or blast-resistant infrastructure, according to a separate Reuters report.

AWS said it is working to replace affected infrastructure in the UAE and will update customers on a timeline in the months ahead.