Iraqi-UAE consortium plans $700 million fast data cable network

By Timour Azhari

RIYADH, Feb 16 (Reuters) – An Iraqi-Emirati consortium plans a $700 million subsea-and-terrestrial data cable linking the United Arab Emirates to ‌Turkey via Iraq, one of the backers said, just over a ‌week after announcement of a Saudi-backed fibre-optic project in Syria.

Gulf neighbours Saudi Arabia and the ​UAE are racing to tap into the demand for connectivity in the region and to attract investment into data centres.

The Iraqi-UAE project, branded WorldLink, would comprise an undersea cable from Fujairah in the UAE to Iraq’s Faw peninsula ‌on the Gulf which will ⁠then run overland north to the Turkish border, Ali El Ekabi, head of Iraq’s Tech 964 – one of the ⁠three members of the consortium – told Reuters.

El Ekabi said the project would be privately funded, take four to five years to complete and target “hyperscalers, international carriers, ​and ​AI applications”. It aims to ease congestion ​on existing east-west data routes ‌and reduce transit times versus paths that run through the Suez Canal.

The Emirati foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

It is the second such new project planned in the region. Saudi Arabia and Syria announced on February 7 plans to set up a fibre-optic network under a ‌wider investment package. The project was described ​as a roughly $1 billion push to rehabilitate Syria’s ​infrastructure and position it ​as a data route between Asia and Europe.

Besides Tech 964, ‌WorldLink’s sponsors include Iraq-Kurdish DIL Technologies ​and UAE-based Breeze ​Investments, according to El Ekabi, who is the son of Iraqi real estate billionaire Namir El Ekabi.

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 Turkey.

(Reporting by Timour Azhari ​in Riyadh; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)