A strategic Iraqi-Emirati partnership has unveiled plans to construct a groundbreaking $700 million data infrastructure project designed to establish a high-speed digital corridor between the United Arab Emirates and Turkey through Iraqi territory. The initiative, branded as WorldLink, represents a significant advancement in Middle Eastern telecommunications infrastructure.
The ambitious project will feature a dual-component network combining submarine and terrestrial fiber-optic cables. The underwater segment will originate from Fujairah on the UAE’s eastern coast, traversing the Gulf waters to reach Iraq’s Faw Peninsula. From this coastal landing point, the infrastructure will continue as an overland cable network extending northward across Iraq until reaching the Turkish border.
According to Ali El Ekabi, head of Iraq’s Tech 964—one of the three primary consortium members—the venture will be entirely privately financed with an anticipated completion timeline of four to five years. The consortium specifically targets major cloud service providers, international telecommunications carriers, and emerging artificial intelligence applications as primary customers for the new infrastructure.
This development emerges just days after Saudi Arabia and Syria announced their own collaborative fiber-optic project, highlighting growing regional competition to capitalize on digital connectivity demands. Gulf nations are actively positioning themselves as critical digital infrastructure hubs, seeking to attract substantial investments into data center facilities and next-generation networking capabilities.
The WorldLink project promises to alleviate congestion on existing east-west data transmission routes while significantly reducing latency compared to traditional pathways that navigate through the Suez Canal. This enhanced connectivity could potentially reshape data flow patterns between Asian and European markets.
Besides Tech 964, the consortium includes Iraqi-Kurdish technology firm DIL Technologies and UAE-based investment company Breeze Investments. The project aligns with Iraq’s broader $17 billion “Development Road” initiative launched in 2023, which aims to establish the nation as a stable transit corridor following decades of regional conflict.
The Emirati foreign ministry has not provided official commentary regarding the project. This strategic infrastructure development occurs amid broader regional efforts to rehabilitate and modernize telecommunications networks, with neighboring Syria simultaneously pursuing similar connectivity enhancements through separate partnerships.