A consortium between Iraq and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is preparing to invest $700 million in a combined subsea and land-based data cable connecting the UAE to Türkiye via Iraq, according to one of the project's backers.
The plan comes little more than a week after a Saudi-supported fiber-optic initiative was unveiled in Syria.
Gulf neighbors Saudi Arabia and the UAE are each trying to tap into demand for connectivity in the region and become hubs for AI infrastructure, including data centers, amid wider economic and geopolitical competition across the region.
The Iraqi-UAE project, branded WorldLink, would comprise an undersea cable from the UAE to Iraq's Faw peninsula on the Gulf, which will then run overland north to the Turkish border, Ali El Akabi, head of Iraq's Tech 964 – one of the three members of the consortium – told Reuters.
El Akabi said the project would be privately funded and rolled out in phases over the next five years. It aims to ease congestion and reduce transit times versus the traditional paths that run through the Suez Canal.
Saudi Arabia and Syria announced on Feb. 7 plans to set up a fiber-optic network under a wider investment package.
That project, dubbed SilkLink, is a roughly $1 billion push to rehabilitate Syria's infrastructure and position it as a data route between Asia and Europe.
In response to a request for comment on the UAE-Iraqi project, the Syrian Telecoms Ministry told Reuters in a statement: "Additional infrastructure investment improves route diversity and resilience for everyone."
"SilkLink is designed to deliver low-latency and high-availability ... and we expect to be highly competitive on both performance and resilience," it said.
Besides Tech 964, WorldLink's sponsors include Iraq-Kurdish DIL Technologies and UAE-based Breeze Investments.
"AI infrastructure readiness is a necessity as we witness its adoption worldwide," said Nayef Al Ameri, chair of Breeze Investments, in a statement. "WorldLink is designed to deliver the fastest and most reliable connectivity in the region, serving these needs."
Iraq, which is trying to market itself as a stable transit corridor after decades of conflict, launched a $17 billion "Development Road" rail-and-road plan in 2023 to connect Faw to Türkiye.
The strategic corridor is planned to link Grand Faw Port in Iraq's oil-rich south to Türkiye and onward to Europe via a combined rail and highway network stretching more than 3,000 kilometers (1,865 miles).
The project aims to shorten travel time between Asia and Europe in a bid to rival the Suez Canal.
