UAE and Iraq partners to connect Gulf to Turkey: An Iraqi-Emirati consortium, including UAE-based Breeze Investments, Iraqi-Kurdish DIL Technologies, and Iraq-based Tech 964, is set to build WorldLink, a USD 700 mn subsea-and-terrestrial fibre-optic connection, Reuters reports. An ownership stake breakdown wasn’t specified.

The details: The cable will run from Fujairah to Turkey via Iraq’s Faw peninsula. Privately funded, the project is slated to be rolled out over five years and aims to reduce congestion and transit times compared to traditional routes running via Egypt’s Suez Canal.

Our take

The cable mirrors a wider logistics alignment between the three countries. The UAE, Iraq, and Turkey have been deepening their cooperation around Baghdad’s development road program, a USD 17 bn rail-and-road network intended to move goods from the Grand Faw Port to the Mediterranean via the Turkish border and onward to Europe. In April 2024, AD Ports signed a preliminary agreement with Iraq’s General Company for Ports to form a joint venture to develop and operate the Grand Faw port and its surrounding economic zone.

Why it matters: Securing and expanding infrastructure connectivity is vital for the UAE’s drive to become a hub for AI and data centers, which rely on this type of infrastructure. The Emirates is also looking to position itself as a regional traffic hub, using dense connectivity to support cross-border data flows as AI workloads scale and data-localization rules tighten. It also comes as other regional players have inked connectivity agreements, including one between Saudi Arabia and Syria for a USD 1 bn fiber optic network.

Background

To this end, the UAE has been thickening its subsea map. e& has recently integrated the 2Africa cable into its SmartHub facilities, plugging the 45-km network into domestic data center and hyperscaler demand.

Further additions are queued, including the 1.4k km Al Khaleej system linking Bahrain with the UAE and other GCC nations, targeted for 2Q 2026, and the 11k-km ICE IV route from Southeast Asia to the Gulf expected in 4Q 2027. Meanwhile, du has teamed up with Peace Cable International Network to land the Peace Gulf Extension in the UAE, building on a 275-km UAE-Oman fibre connection between Dubai, Barka, and Salalah.

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