RIYADH – 20 February 2026: Saudi Arabia is reportedly seeking to reroute a planned fiber-optic cable project through Syria instead of Israel, as part of the East to Med Data Corridor (EMC), according to a report by Middle East Eye citing regional officials.
The EMC is a joint Saudi–Greek initiative involving Saudi Telecom Company (stc), Greece’s Public Power Corporation (PPC), Greek telecom operators and satellite applications firm TTSA. The project is designed to connect Saudi Arabia to Greece through the Mediterranean Sea, strengthening digital connectivity between the Gulf and Europe.
According to the report, Riyadh now prefers Syria as the transit country for the terrestrial segment of the fiber route, following political changes in Damascus and shifting regional dynamics.
The EMC was first announced in 2022, when Saudi Arabia was engaged in discussions with the United States over a potential normalization agreement with Israel. At that time, Syria, under former president Bashar al-Assad, was not considered a viable transit option.
However, following political developments in Syria and evolving geopolitical alignments, the country has re-emerged as a potential corridor for infrastructure and connectivity projects.
Fiber-optic cables are critical to global internet traffic, transmitting data via light pulses in milliseconds. With artificial intelligence and data-intensive applications driving demand, Gulf states are increasingly investing in digital corridors and data centers to position themselves as key connectivity hubs linking Asia, Europe and Africa.
Industry experts note that additional terrestrial routes between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean are strategically valuable, offering redundancy and resilience in global data infrastructure.
The potential rerouting could have diplomatic implications, particularly for Greece, which maintains close ties with Israel while also seeking to position itself as a connectivity and energy gateway between Europe and West Asia.
Saudi Arabia has not publicly confirmed the reported route change.
